Samuel Johnson (1822-1882), was born in Salem, Massachusetts on October 10, 1822 to a physician father and a mother whose family who had lived in Salem for many generations. Best known for his independent religious and political philosophies, Johnson embraced ideas and practiced views of science, humanity, ethics, spirituality, and natural and universal religion.

At sixteen, Johnson entered Harvard College, where he graduated second in his class in 1842 with a degree in Arts. From there, he enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School, where he graduated in 1846 with a degree in Theology. It was at the Harvard Divinity School, where along with fellow classmates, Octavius Brooks Frothingham (1822-1895) and Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892), Johnson would discover and adopt the philosophies of transcendentalism, universal religion, and other non-Christian religions. Although Johnson had no religious denomination, in 1851 he briefly worked at a Unitarian Church in Dorchester, MA before resigning in 1852.

In 1853, Johnson established the Free Church of Lynn (Massachusetts), which focused on free and independent thought, and was described by the founder himself as being an "independent religious society". Johnson remained a minister of the Free Church until June 26, 1870, when he retired to concentrate on his writing and publications. Johnson wrote many poems, hymns, essays and sermons which addressed topics that ranged from his beliefs in religion, spirituality and reform, to women's suffrage and the anti-slavery movement; a cause that he actively advocated. Johnson also wrote many books, such as Book of Hymns in 1846, and Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, with colleague Samuel Longfellow and a three volume series Oriental Religions and Their Relation to Universal Religion: India (1872), China (1877), and Persia (1885), which illustrated his interests in eastern spirituality and philosophy.

In 1876, Johnson moved to a house in North Andover, MA that had been bequeathed to him by his father. He remained there until his death on February 18, 1882.