John Henry Johnstone (1749–1828), also known as 'Jack' Johnstone or 'Irish' Johnstone, was an Irish actor, comedian and singer.
Life
Johnstone was born probably on 1 August 1749, in the horse-barracks in Kilkenny, where his father, a quartermaster in a dragoon regiment, was then quartered. He joined a cavalry regiment, and won some reputation among his comrades for his sweet tenor voice. It is said that on his discharge his colonel recommended him for his singing in a letter to Thomas Ryder, manager of the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin. Here in any case Johnstone made his first stage appearance, about 1773, as Lionel in Lionel and Clarissa (Charles Dibdin and Isaac Bickerstaffe). He was engaged for three years, and remained from seven to ten years on the Irish stage, singing principal tenor parts.
The London stage
On the recommendation of Charles Macklin, Johnstone and his wife were engaged by Thomas Harris at Covent Garden Theatre for three years, and Johnstone was well received on his début as Lionel on 2 October 1783.
William Shield operas
His association with the operas of William Shield commenced early. He appeared (as Dermott) with John Edwin and Charles Bannister in The Poor Soldier (John O'Keeffe's words) in 1783: in 1784 in Shield's Robin Hood, his duet with Charles Bannister was 'unanimously encored', and later that year he sang "Let fame sound the trumpet" in Shield's Fontainblau with great success: he and Bannister sang airs and duets at a dinner with Shield a few days afterwards. In The Choleric Fathers (1785), (a Shield opera to a Thomas Holcroft libretto) he was Don Fernando in a cast led by John Quick. Shield's 1786 collaboration with O'Keeffe, Love in a Camp saw him as Captain Patrick, and Love and War (1787) (a Robert Jephson script), again with Quick, gave him Captain Farquar. In The Farmer (1787) Johnstone was Valentine to Charles Bannister's Farmer Blackberry, and in The Highland Reel (1788) he was Sandy to Bannister's Serjeant Jack: in 1790 he was Colonel Lefort to Bannister's Peter I in The Czar. All three were O'Keeffe texts set by Shield.
1790 also saw Johnstone as Raymond to Bannister's Duran in Shield's The Crusade to a Frederic Reynolds script. In the 1791 premiere of The Woodman (text by Dudley), with Quick, Bannister, Incledon and Mrs Martyr, he played Captain O'Donnel 'with great vivacity and spirit, and gave his Irish ballad with peculiar felicity', though when recalled it was to watch mutely while Incledon gave encores. He was Sergeant of Grenadiers in To Arms! in 1793, Dorimund in Travellers in Switzerland in 1794, and in 1795, in the afterpiece The Irish Mimic, or Blunders at Brighton (Shield and O'Keeffe) as Parrot he played an Irish character who failed completely to mimic certain birds and animals (but sang beautifully).
Johnstone and William Shield, Charles Incledon, Charles Dignum, Charles Bannister, Charles Ashley and William Parke (oboeist) in 1793 formed themselves into 'The Glee Club', a set which met on Sunday evenings during the season at the Garrick's Head Coffee House in Bow Street, once a fortnight, for singing among themselves and dining together. A project to erect a bust to Dr Thomas Arne, which this group proposed to fund by charitable performances, was vetoed by the management of Covent Garden. It is told that Johnstone was a regular drinking companion of Charles Incledon's at 'a public house of the lowest class', The Brown Bear in Bow Street.