Johnson's Household

Along with Frank Barber, Johnson's companion of longest standing was his blind housekeeper Anna Williams (1706-1783). As a consequence of Johnson's acquaintance with her father Zachariah, Williams came to the Johnson household as a companion to Tetty shortly before her death in 1752. She would remain there for the rest of her life, with the exception of a six-year period in which she took her own lodgings, during which time she received Johnson for a cup of tea every evening. Johnson made numerous efforts to better her circumstances, such as arranging for her to have cataract surgery, sadly unsuccessful, from a leading London surgeon, Samuel Sharp. In 1766, Johnson arranged for the publication of a collection of her writings that raised £100 for her. As Thomas Percy points out in a note in his copy, a few of the pieces were by Johnson himself. Her prickly personality seems to have won her few friends, but Johnson was devoted to her, writing after her death, "Her curiosity was universal, her knowledge was very extensive, and she sustained forty years of misery with steady fortitude. Thirty years and more she had been my companion, and her death has left me very desolate."