Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/380

Stillingfleet  [Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 467–9; Pref. to Gammer Gurton's Needle in Dodsley's Old Plays, iii. 165–9; Pigot's Hadleigh; Baker's Hist. of St. John's College, Cambridge, ed. Mayor, i. 168–72; Cussans's Bishops of Bath and Wells; Strype's Works; Harington's Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 135; Warton's English Poetry; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 829; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24487, ff. 33–7.]  STILLINGFLEET, BENJAMIN (1702–1771), naturalist and dilettante, was born in Norfolk in 1702. His father, Edward Stillingfleet (1660?–1708), eldest son of Edward Stillingfleet, bishop of Worcester [q. v.], was a Lady Margaret scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge (graduating B.A. in 1682, M.A. in 1685, and M.D. in 1692). He was elected F.R.S. in 1688, and Gresham professor of physic. Subsequently he practised as a doctor at King's Lynn, married against the bishop's wishes, got into debt, and further offended his father by his Jacobite opinions; but, on his taking orders, the bishop obtained for him the rectory of Newington Butts, which he exchanged in 1698 for the rectory of Wood Norton and Swanton, Norfolk (cf., Hist. of St. John's College, Cambridge, ed. Mayor, ii. 702). On the bishop's death in 1699, however, he left nothing to his son, and accordingly, on the death of the latter in 1708, his widow was in straitened circumstances. Besides Benjamin, she had three daughters, of whom the eldest, Elizabeth, afterwards married John Locker [q. v.], and she herself afterwards married a Mr. Dunch.

Benjamin was educated first at Norwich school, from which he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sub-sizar in 1720, by the advice of Bentley, then master, who had been Bishop Stillingfleet's domestic chaplain. He distinguished himself both in classics and in mathematics, and was chosen scholar in 1723, graduating B.A. in the same year. To this year also belongs his first extant work, ‘A Poetical Epistle to a Friend,’ printed in the ‘Poetical Magazine’ for 1764, and in his ‘Select Works’ (1811). In 1724 he settled at Felbrig, Norfolk, as tutor to Ashe-Windham's only son William, then seven years old, whose mother was a niece of Bishop Stillingfleet. Here Stillingfleet remained for fourteen years, having the entire charge of the boy's education until his coming of age, when he addressed to him an excellent letter of advice (Literary Life, pp. 20–64). In 1726 Stillingfleet was disappointed of a fellowship at his college; the failure was attributed to the influence of Bentley, who is reported to have said that ‘it was a pity a gentleman of Mr. Stillingfleet's parts should be buried within the walls of a college.’ Though acknowledging his scholarship, Stillingfleet after this bore a grudge against Bentley, which is evinced both in his ‘Essay on Conversation’ and in his unpublished notes on Bentley's edition of Milton. At Felbrig Stillingfleet became ardently attached to Miss Alice Barnes, granddaughter of Dr. Beck, rector of North Repps and Felbrig, and sister of the Rev. Edward Barnes, who succeeded Dr. Beck; but, after ten years' courtship, she married a richer man named Russel, and Ashe-Windham, to salve the poor tutor's wounded affections, sent him abroad with his pupil in 1737. Before leaving England probably, Stillingfleet wrote the mathematical jeu d'esprit published in 1738, under the pseudonym of Irenæus Krantzovius, as ‘Some Thoughts concerning Happiness.’

In Italy and Switzerland the travellers made the acquaintance of Robert Price of Foxley, Herefordshire, the father of Sir Uvedale Price [q. v.]; Richard Aldworth (afterwards Neville) [q. v.], the father of the first Lord Braybrooke; Lord Haddington; his brother, the Hon. George Baillie; and Dr. Dampier, an Eton master (afterwards dean of Durham), and father of Thomas Dampier [q. v.], bishop of Ely. These friends established at Geneva a ‘common room’ where they read and acted plays and pantomimes, forestalling Garrick in adopting the ‘natural’ manner and ‘improving’ ‘Macbeth’ by substituting magicians for the witches. Stillingfleet acted as ‘director of the scenes and machinist,’ and, in conjunction with Price, managed the orchestra and composed the airs for the pantomimes. In 1741, in company with Dr. Richard Pococke [q. v.], the party explored the Mer de Glace in the valley of Chamounix. The ascent was described in ‘An Account of the Glacieres or Ice Alps in Savoy’ (London, 1744, 4to), in which Stillingfleet collaborated with Windham and Price.

In 1743 they returned to England, and Stillingfleet received a pension of a hundred pounds a year from Ashe-Windham until the death of the latter in 1749, when it was continued by his son. He lived mainly in a house in Panton Square, which was rented jointly by William Windham and Price, paying visits to Aldworth Neville at Stanlake in Berkshire, and to his friend Robert Marsham at Stratton in Norfolk. At this period Stillingfleet devoted himself largely to the study of Homer, Plato, and Aristotle, and meditated a reply to Locke on the Understanding, he having espoused Hutcheson's views of ideal beauty as against