Chapter John of Hexham to Jormungandar of J by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

John of Hexham to Jormungandar

John of Hexham An English historical writer, twelfth century.

John of Leyden (the prophet), being about to marry Bertha, met with three Anabaptists who observed a strong likeness in him to a picture of David in Munster cathedral. They entered into conversation with him, and finding him apt for their purpose, induced him to join their rebellion. The rebels took the city of Munster, and John was crowned "ruler of Westphalia." His mother met him in the street, and John disclaimed all knowledge of her; but subsequently visited her in prison, and obtained her forgiveness. When the emperor arrived with his army, John's Anabaptist friends deserted him, and "the prophet," setting fire to the banquet-room of his palace, perished with his mother in the flames. (Meyerbeer: Le Prophète [an opera]).
    His real name was John Bockhold.

John the Almoner Chrysostom was so called, because he bestowed so large a portion of his revenues on hospitals and other charities. (347-407.)

John the Baptist Patron saint of missionaries. He was sent "to prepare the way of the Lord."
   In Christian art he is represented in a coat of sheepskins, in allusion to his life in the desert; either holding a rude wooden cross, with a pennon bearing the words, Ecce Agnus Dei, or with a book on which a lamb is seated; or holding in his right hand a lamb surrounded by a halo, and bearing a cross on the right foot.

John Tamson's Man, a henpecked husband; one ordered here, and ordered there, and ordered everywhere. Tameson - i.e. spiritless, the slave even of a Tame-son.

"`The deil's in the wife!' said Cuddie. `Dye think I am to be John Tamson's man, and maistered by a woman a' the days o' my life?" - Sir W. Scott: Old Mortality, chap. xxxix.

John with the Leaden Sword The Duke of Bedford, who acted as regent for Henry VI. in France, was so called by Earl Douglas.

Johnnies British bourgeois. Byron, February 23rd, 1824, writes to Murray his publisher respecting an earthquake:

"If you had but seen the English Johnnies, who had never been out of a cockney workshop before ... [running away ...]."

Johnny Crapaud A Frenchman, so called by the English sailors in the long Napoleon contest. The ancient Flemings used to call the French "Crapaud Franchos." In allusion to the toads borne originally in the arms of France.

Johnny Raw A Verdant Green; a newly-enlisted soldier; an adult apprentice in the ship-trade.

"The impulse given to ship-building by the continental war, induced employers to take persons as apprentices who had already passed their majority. This class of men-apprentices, generally from remote towns, were called `Johnny Raws' by the fraternity." - C. Thomson: Autobiography, p. 73.

Johnson (Dr. Samuel) lived in Fleet Street - first in Fetter Lane, then in Boswell Court, then in Gough Square, then in the Inner Temple Lane for seven years, then in Johnson's Court (No. 7) for ten years; and lastly in Bolt Court (No. 8), where he died eight years after. The coffee-house he most frequented was the Mitre tavern in Fleet Street, and not that which has assumed the name of "Dr. Johnson's Coffee-house." The church he frequented was St. Clement Danes in the Strand.

Johnstone The crest of this family is a winged spur, or spur between two wings, leathered, with the motto. "Nunquam non paratus." When King Edward I. was meditating treachery in favour of Balliol, Johnstone sent to Bruce (then in England) a spur with a feather tied to it. Bruce took the hint and fled, and when he became king conferred the crest on the Johnstone family.

Johnstone's Tippet (St.). A halter.

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