Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/372

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xii. OCT. IG, im

GEORGE STUBBES.

THE letter from John Hoadly which was printed at 10 S. ix. 3, recommended Dodsley to insert in his poetical ' Collections ' some pieces by " George Stubbs." I prefixed to it the remark that the publisher did not seem to have adopted the suggestion. This mention of George Stubbs drew from COL. FYNMORE the question (10 S. ix. 250), Who was this poet ? The following particulars supply some answer to this inquiry.

George Stubbes or Stubbs belonged to a clerical family long connected with Wilt- shire. His grandfather, Thomas Stubbs, described by Foster in ' Alumni Oxonienses ' as sacerdotis ftlius, was vicar in 1641 of Elingdon alias Wroughton in that county. His father John Stubbes matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, on 18 Jan., 1666/7, .aged 18, and proceeded B.A. from Hart Hall 1670, M.A. 1673. He became Rector of Little Hinton, near Swindon, in 1676, vacating it in 1684 ; and on 1 Feb., 1681/2, was installed as Prebendary of Gillingham Minor in the Cathedral of Salisbury. Some time towards the end of that year he resigned that stall, and on 30 March, 1683, he suc- ceeded to that of Torleton in the same cathedral. From 1685 to 1699 he was Rector of Houghton All Saints', near Stock- bridge, Hampshire, where he died on

22 Nov., 1699, and was buried. His widow Martha Stubbes died on 6 Aug., 1730, Aged 73, and was also buried at Houghton. The gravestone, now against the east wall of the church, just under the chancel window, states that " the dear remains. . . .after thirty years of widowhood [were] restored lay her son, not without a tear due to both their memories, to fulfil the tender vow recorded in the elegant inscription on her wedding ring (Ruth i. vv. 16, 17)."

George Stubbes, the son of the Rev. John Stubbes and of Martha his wife, was born at Little Hinton on Saturday, 17 Sept., 1681, "hora nona post merid.," and baptized on

23 Sept.* He matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 21 March, 1697/8, and remained there until 5 April, 1701, when he migrated to Exeter College, where lie resided as a sojourner to 11 July, 1701. On 30 June in that year he was elected to a Sarum fellowship in his new college, and

.admitted on 8 July. A year from the latter date he became a full fellow, and he held that position until 1725. His degrees were B.A. 10 July, 1704, M.A. 29 April, 1707.

Stubbes lived at Oxford on his fellowship for some years. He is the second of the bards mentioned in the distich, Alma novem geriuit celebres Rhedecyna poetas, Bubb, Stubb, Grubb, Crabb, Trapp, Young, Cary,

Tickell, Evans,

which formed the subject of three com- munications at 2 S. xi. 375 (11 May, 1861). His poem was 'The Laurel and the Olive, inscrib'd to George Bubb, Esq., 1710,' in which he calls to mind all the warriors of classical times, and eulogizes Marlborough and Queen Anne. Prefixed is a poem to the author by George Bubb, the first name in the distich, well known in after years as Bubb Dodington. Hearne calls Stubbs "an ingenious gentleman," and designates Bubb " his dear friend acquaintance," as " likewise an ingenious young gentleman" ('Collec- tions,' ii. 386).

On 19 Dec., 1714, Stubbes was ordained priest at Christ Church Cathedral by the Bishop of Oxford. He was chaplain at Madrid to Paul Methuen when he went as ambassador to the Court of Spain, and he continued in that position to the next holder of the office, his friend George Bubb. By the King's mandamus he was allowed (7 April, 1718) commons and profits of fellowship during his absence in that capacity ; but the College stipulated that it should not be regarded as a precedent.

By 1719 Stubbes was once more in England. In that year he published, with- out his name, ' A Letter of Thanks from a Young Clergyman to the Reverend Dr. Hare, Dean of Worcester, for his Visitation Sermon at Putney.' In this he satirized, as a zealous supporter of the ecclesiastical principles advocated by Bishop Hoadly in the Bangorian controversy, this famous sermon of Hare, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, which was entitled ' Church Authority Vindicated,' assuming that Hare only affected to oppose the doctrines which in reality it was his aim to advocate.

Stubbes, on St. Thomas's Day (21 Dec., 1721) preached before the University a sermon, which Dr. Shippen, the Vice -Chan- cellor, a brother of the Jacobite politician, sent for, and returned with the dry comment that no censure could be applied to its views. It was "printed by W. Wilkins " in 1722, with the title ' A Constant Search after Truth the Necessary Result of a Trust in God,' and with a prefatory epistle to the Vice-Chancellor. Hearne calls the epistle " very sneering," and adds, " This Stubbes is an enthusiast" (''Collections,' vii. 329-30).