JOHNSON, Edward, historian, born in Herne Hill, Kent County, England, in 1599; died in Woburn, Massachusetts, 23 April, 1672. He is supposed to have come to New England with Governor John Winthrop in 1630, and was active in the organization of the town and church of Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1642, being annually elected as its representative, with the exception of the year 1648, from 1643 till 1671, and holding at the same time the office of recorder from 1642 till his death. In 1655 he was speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives, and in 1665 he was one of the commissioners to meet Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, who had been sent to England to "assure the king of the loyalty of his subjects and at the same time to endeavor to establish the rights and privileges then enjoyed." His "Wonder working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England "(London, 1654; reprinted in "Massachusetts Historical Collections") is a somewhat rambling history of the country "from the English planting in 1628 till 1652."