James Johnson (1705-74) was the son of James Johnson, rector of Long Melford, Suffolk. He worked as deputy master at Westminster School in 1733-48, and held clerical livings at Turweston, Buckinghamshire in 1741-44, Mixbury, Oxfordshire in 1744-59, and Watford, Hertfordshire in 1744-59. He also served as chaplain-in-ordinary to King George II in 1744, and held a residency at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1748-52. Following this he was elevated to Bishop of Gloucester in 1752, and then became Bishop of Worcester in 1759. Johnson remained at Worcester until his death on 26 November 1774, when he fell from his horse in Bath. He was buried at St Cyriac's Church in Lacock, Wiltshire, and four years later his sister, Sarah Johnson, commissioned designs from Robert Adam for a funerary monument to be carved by Joseph Nollekens RA (1737-1823) for Worcester Cathedral.

Adam made variant designs for two separate schemes, one being a modest wall-mounted monument with a large central inscription panel, and the other being a more extravagant free-standing monument, with a sarcophagus and a bust of Johnson, either set against a pediment, or a pyramid in relief. The first was executed for the Church at Lacock, but it was the latter – a free-standing monument with a fluted sarcophagus, supported by fluted volutes, and ornamented with a mitre, crozier and inverted torch (the symbol of death), surmounted by a bust, and set against a pyramid in relief – which was executed and signed by Nollekens for the west end of Worcester Cathedral. Both monuments survive in situ.

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, index pp. 31, 77; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume I, pp. 363, 367, Volume 2, p. 267; ‘Johnson, James (bap. 1705, d. 1774)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography online

Frances Sands, 2014

Updated in 2020 following information on Lacock Church from Robert CJ Baines.