Education
Born at Carrigogunnel, County Limerick about 1719, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but is not known to have taken a degree.
Born at Carrigogunnel, County Limerick about 1719, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but is not known to have taken a degree.
Prevented by deafness from practising at the Irish Bar, he went to India, where he was proprietor of a newspaper. He wrote one successful book, Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, a somewhat sombre satire. He was called to the bar, but extreme deafness prevented his practice except as a chamber lawyer, where he did not succeed.
He began to write as a living.
In May 1782 Johnstone sailed for India, with a dangerous shipwreck on the voyage. He found employment in writing for the Bengal newspaper press, under the signature of "Oneiropolos".
He became in time joint proprietor of a journal, and prospered. He died at Calcutta about 1800.