Percival Norton Johnson

Percival Norton Johnson (1792–1866) was the founder of Johnson Matthey, the United Kingdom's largest precious metals business.

Career Having trained in his father's business as an assayer, Percival Johnson established his own firm in 1817. He specialised in the assaying and refining of precious metals particularly gold imported from Brazil: he perfected a method of extracting the Palladium from the gold therefore improving the gold's colour. in Devon where he had mining interests. He retired in 1860 and died in 1866.

Family He married Elizabeth Lydia Smith in 1817: they had no children. He married a second time, to Georgina Elizabeth Ellis, in 1858.