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 o'clock in the forenoon. Of the four capital ships in the Spanish fleet, one escaped and ran for Cadiz, but struck on a rock and went to the bottom. The three others were captured, but two of them caught fire and were burnt with all their cargo and a great part of their men. The fourth remained in the possession of the English; some of the other ships also were taken. The value of the prize to the captors was estimated at about 600,000l.; but it was stated by the Spaniards that their loss was not less than nine million dollars, or nearly two millions sterling. The news of this tremendous blow reached England early in October. An official narrative of it was published on 4 Oct., and a thanksgiving service ordered to be held on the 8th in all the churches in London and Westminster (A true Narrative of the late Success … against the King of Spain's West India Fleet in its Return to Cadiz).

Shortly after this Stayner returned to England with Mountagu [see, first ]; but rejoined Blake early the next year, and took a brilliant part in the destruction of the Spanish ships at Santa Cruz on 20 April. For his conduct on this occasion he was knighted by Cromwell on his return to England in the following August. During the rest of the year and during 1658 he commanded in the Downs, nominally as second to Mountagu, who was most of the time in London, and really as commander-in-chief, with his flag as rear-admiral sometimes in the Essex, sometimes in the London, and towards the end of the time in the Speaker. His work was entirely administrative, and he had no active share in the operations against Mardyke and Dunkirk, though he was in constant communication with Goodsonn, by whom they were entirely conducted. In the summer of 1659 he was rear-admiral of the fleet with Mountagu in the Sound, and on 16 April 1660 was appointed by Mountagu to be rear-admiral of the fleet which went over to bring the king to England. For this service he was knighted on 24 Sept., his earlier knighthood, conferred by Cromwell, not being recognised by the royalists.

In the early summer of 1661 Stayner was again commander-in-chief in the Downs, and in June sailed for Lisbon and the Mediterranean as rear-admiral of the fleet under the Earl of Sandwich. When Sandwich went home in April 1662, Stayner, with his flag in the Mary, remained as vice-admiral of the fleet, under Sir [q. v.] On 2 July it was reported from Lisbon that he had just arrived from Tangiers; on 20 July that he was dangerously ill; on 9 Oct. that he had died—apparently a few days before. In pursuance of his wish to be buried beside his wife, who seems to have died in 1658, his body was embalmed and brought home in the Mary, which arrived at Spithead on 3 Nov. He left a son Richard, who on 30 May 1663 was petitioning for repayment of 300l. which his father had advanced for the king's service. The claim was approved by Sandwich, but there is no mention of the money having been paid.



STEARNE. [See also and .]

STEBBING, HENRY (1687–1763), divine, baptised at Walton in Suffolk on 19 Aug. 1687, was the fourth son of John Stebbing, (1647–1728), a grocer of Walton by his wife Mary (d. 1721), daughter and coheiress of Richard Kenington. Henry entered St. Catharine Hall, Cambridge, as a sizar on 24 Feb. 1704–5, graduating B.A. in 1708, M.A. in 1712, and D.D. in 1730. On 19 Oct. 1710 he was elected a fellow, and on 27 June 1738 was incorporated at Oxford. On Lady-day 1713 he resigned his fellowship on being presented to the parish of Lower Rickinghall in Suffolk, and on 31 May 1726 he was instituted rector of Garboldisham in Norfolk. On 14 July 1731 he was elected preacher to the Society of Gray's Inn, and in the following year was appointed chaplain in ordinary to the king. On 19 July 1735 he was installed archdeacon of Wiltshire, and in 1739 became chancellor of Sarum. In 1748 he became rector of Redenhall in Norfolk, and retained the charge for the rest of his life. He died at Gray's Inn on 2 Jan. 1763, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, where a monument was erected to his memory. His portrait, painted in 1757 by Joseph Highmore, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London. An engraving by James Roberts is prefixed to the edition of his ‘Tracts’ published in 1766.

Stebbing was well known among his contemporaries as a controversial champion of Church of England orthodoxy. Among others he wrote against [q. v.] and [q. v.], bishop of Bangor. His chief antagonist, however, was Warburton, with whom he carried on a voluminous warfare for many years. Its origin was Stebbing's attack on Warburton's ‘Divine Legation of Moses.’ Stebbing's most important works were:
 * 1) ‘A Rational Enquiry into the proper methods of supporting Christianity, so far as it concerns the Governors of the Church,’ London, 1720, 8vo.
 * 2) ‘An