Johnson’s biographer deserved his own book

In 1792 all of London was talking about the unfortunate Mary Bryant, the convict who had escaped from Botany Bay. She and her accomplices, including her husband, had sailed a boat to Timor where they claimed to be victims of a shipwreck. This was later exposed as a lie and the convicts were arrested.

Bryant had already lost her husband on her perilous voyage of escape and her daughter died in the awful conditions aboard the Gorgon, the ship that took her back to England for trial. She was put on trial for “return before expiry of sentence” which carried a possible death penalty.

But tongues were set wagging when she and her four fellow escapees were defended by a great Scottish lawyer, the famous James Boswell, best known for his biography of 18th century critic, essayist and poet Samuel Johnson, published in 1791. Aside from his literary achievements and legal qualifications, Boswell also had a reputation as a womaniser, so many people naturally assumed he had struck up a relationship with the poor convict woman.

Most likely it seems that he, like many others, was simply moved by the tragic circumstances of her case and defended her out of his concern for the downtrodden and a sense of what was right. He helped Bryant escape the noose, but she was ordered to serve out the rest of her sentence.

Bosewell continued to appeal for clemency on the grounds that she had already been through enough punishment. She was later released. It is unlikely that Boswell made her pay a fee, in fact he set her up with £5 a year for the rest of her life as long as she never broke the law again.

In 1937, an envelope containing wild sarsaparilla leaves was discovered among Boswell’s papers. Used for brewing tea, they had been collected in Australia by Bryant. It may well have been all Bryant could pay Boswell for conducting her defence. In soon returned to study law. However, Boswell spent too much time at the theatre and fell in love with a Catholic actress, causing his father to send him to Glasgow University to study in 1759.

When Boswell expressed thoughts of converting to Catholicism, his father sent word for him to come home. Instead he ran off to London, where he planned on becoming a Catholic monk, but ended up spending three months drinking and womanising, contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

His father fetched Boswell back to Scotland, got him to sign away his inheritance and reduced his allowance.

Boswell finished his law studies in 1762 and his father permitted him to travel to London to seek a commission in the army. It was during his time that he met Johnson in 1763. They became good friends. Boswell showed Johnson around Scotland and Johnson described Boswell as “the best travelling companion in the world”. Soon after, he gave up the idea of becoming an officer and gave in to his father’s wish for him to practise law.

He went to study law in Utrecht before embarking on a tour of Europe. On his travels he met the philosopher Jean-jacques Rousseau and Voltaire, and is said to have had an affair with Rousseau’s mistress.

He also spent time in Italy and in Corsica, writing articles on the political situation in Corsica, which became the basis of a best-selling book in 1768. He returned to Scotland in 1766 and practised law in Edinburgh, often visiting London.

In 1769, he married his cousin Margaret Montgomerie and they had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. When his father died in

1872, he became Lord Auchinleck.

Johnson’s death in 1784 spurred Boswell to move to London to begin writing the planned biography. It was published in two volumes in 1791, bringing him fame as an author. Years of drinking and sex finally caught up with him and he died in 1795.