Letter from John Johnson to Shadrach Gledhill, including discussion of diabetes

Letter dated 6th November 1787 from John Johnson in Liverpool to Shadrach Gledhill, a painter in Halifax. The first half of the letter is concerned with church matters; Gledhill, addressed as "Dear Brother", is clearly a co-religionist, and Johnson discusses with him the politics of their church and in particular his opposition to a Mr Chetham, who is described as having "imbibed the very doctrine of Arminius" (which differed from strict Calvinism in allowing some agency for the human will). The second half discusses Gledhill's diabetes (described as "a frequent and large Discharge of pale and sweetish Urine, attended with a constant Thirst, and a wasting of the whole Body"): Johnson relays two recipes for drinks to counteract this, one of them ascribed to "Dr. Mead", presumably Richard Mead.

1787

1 letter

Purchased from JLM Gulley, July 2016.

John Johnson (1705/6-1791) was a Baptist minister in Liverpool for much of his career, and a religious controversialist; more details of his life can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.