There is no evidence that the Johnson family had such very deep roots in Ash as the Lances, nor did they achieve similar prosperity. The Johnson entries in the registers begin with the burial of Joan, wife of John Johnson, in 1563 and are sufficiently numerous to suggest a continuous occupation into the eighteenth century, although not to build a satisfactory pedigree. An unusual number of the menfolk were twice married, but neither the first nor the second ventures seem to have produced many children. Some of those only once married had largish families, but by and large the Johnsons were not a very prolific family.
   In 1664 there were two Johnson households, each headed by a William Johnson. One house was rated at three hearths, the other at one hearth. The occupant of the more modest establishment may have been a William, son of William Johnson, who had been 

christened in 1633. He was not charged to the tax, so either his abode was worth less than twenty shillings per annum and not subject to parish rates or he was in receipt of’ poor relief.
   Save for a Thomas Johnson who died in 1780, the last entry for this family is of the burial of Henry Johnson in 1718. Three sons and two daughters of Henry and his wife Sarah had been christened during the years 1690 to 1702, but there is no further record of any of them. On the occasion of the baptism of the youngest son, John, in 1702, his father was described as blacksmith of ‘ye Borough of Ash’.
   It is tempting to suppose that the family lived at and gave their name to Johnson’s Farm at West Yoke.⁴ There would have been nothing unusual in someone engaged