Stanford, John, a Baptist minister, was born at Wandsworth, .Surrey, England, Oct. 20, 1754. Early confirmed in the Cliiirch of England, he nevertheless came under the influence of the venerable Koraaine, which led his uncle to cut him off in his will. Left with the care of three orphan sisters, he went to Ham- mersmith to take charge of a boarding-school. Later he became a Baptist and united with the Church of Avhich Benjamin Wallin was pastor. Through the in- strumentality of ]\Ir. Stanford, a Baptist Church was es- tablished at Hammersmith, to which he was called. He was ordained and installed in 1781. He left Eng- land Jan. 7, 1786, and arrived at Norfolk, A^a., April 16, but removed to New York in the following month and opened an academy there. In 1787 he accepted a call from the Church in Providence, R. I., and was shortly after elected a trustee of Brown University. He re- turned to New York in November, 1789, and resumed teaching. In 1794 he erected in Fair (now Fulton) Street a building to be used as an academy and lecture- room, and held services on each Sunday. A Church organization was the result, and he became its pastor; but, his congregation becoming scattered, the organiza- tion was discontinued in August, 1803. In 1807 he act- ed as supply for the Bethel Church in Broome Street. In March, 1808, he preached for the first time in the Almshouse, and in June, 1813, became its chaplain. His life until its close was devoted to degraded, fallen hu- manity. He labored in the State-prison Bridewell, the Magdalen House, the Orphan Asylum, Debtors' Prison, Penitentiary, Lunatic Asylum, and other charitable in- stitutions. He was honored with the degree of D.D. from Union College. His death took place Jan. 14, 1834. Dr. Stanford published. An Address on the Buni- in<i of the Orphan House, Philadelphia (1822) : — On the Layiwj of a Corner-stone of the Orphan House, Green- wich (1823) -.—Discourses (1824, 1826), and The Aged Christianas Companion (1829, 8vo). See Sprague, ^w- nals of the A me?: Pulpit, vi, 244.
Stauge, TuEonoR Friedrich, a German doctor and professor of theology, was born Nov. 1, 1742, at Os- ternienburg. He was called to Halle in 1828, where he died, Oct. 6, 1831. He wrote, Anticritica in Loco.i quosiktm Psalmonim a Criticis ISollicitatos (Halle, 1719, 1794) -.—Theol. Symmikta (ibid. 1802, 3 pts.) :—n<itra(/e zur heh: Grammatik (ibid. 1820). See Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 377; W^iner, Handbuch der theol. Literutur, i, 29, 117, 210; ii,787. (B. P.)
Stanhope, George, an English prelate, was born at Hertishorn (Hertishoon), Derbyshire, March 5, 1060, and received liis rudimentary education at Lapping- ham, Itutlaiid. He removed to Leicester, then to Eton, from which lie went to King's College. He took the degree of A.B. in UWl, and that of A.M. in 1685. He ofliciated first at the Church of Quoi, near Cambridge, and in 16JSH was vice-proctor of the university. The same year he was preferred to the rectory of Tewing, Herts, and in 1()89 to the vicarage of Lewisham, Kent, by lord Dartmouth, to whom he had been chaplain. He was soon after appointed cliaplain in ordinary to king William and (jiicen IMary. and filled the same post under queen Anne. In July, 1097, he took the degree of D.D. , and in 1701 preached the Boyle Lectures, which he piiblislieti. He was i)resented in 1703 to the vicar- age of Dejilford, Kent, relinquishing the rectory of Tewing and holding Lcwisliam and Deptford by dis- pensation. In this year he was promoted to the dean- cry of Canterbury, in which lie was installed March 23,
STANHOPE
987
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1704. He was also Tuesday lecturer at the Church of St. Lawrence, Jewry. At the convocation of the clergy in Februar\% 1714, he was elected prolocutor, to which position he was twice re-elected. He died at Bath, March 18, 1728. In his will he left two hundred and tifty pounds to found an exhibition for a king's scholar of Canterbury school. He published a translation of Thomas a Kempis's De Imitatione t'hi-isti (IGOG, 8vo) : — a translation of Charron's Treatise on Wisdom (1697, 3 vols. 8vo) : — Meditations of the Emi^eror M. Aurelius Antoninus (1699, 4to): — Truth and Excellence of the Christian Relifjion Asserted, etc. (Boj-le Lectures, 1706, 4to): — a fourth edition of Parsons's Christian Directory (1716, 8vo) : — a free version of St. Augustine's Medita- tions (1720, 8vo) : — Grounds and Pi-inciples of the Chris- tian Religion : — Sermons, etc. See Chalmers, Biog, Diet, s. V. ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uthors, s. v.
Stanhope, Lady Hester, whose remarkable life in Mount Lebanon may be numbered among the most interesting romances of historj', was born March 12, 1766. Her father was the celebrated lord Stanhope, and her mother a daughter of the great earl of Chatham ; conse- quently she was niece to William Pitt, in whose house she resided, acting as his private secretary and sharing in all his confidences. Biographers are silent on tlie causes which influenced her fate after the death of her uncle, but they were principally two : First, the disgust of her high nature for European society, created by her knowledge of the secrets of diplomacj' and the hollow, deceitful life of all around her; and, secondly, the mj's- tic influence which prevailed for about ten years at that period, and of which history takes little note. It is certain, however, that from 1794 to the death of Pitt startling announcements were continually made by pri- vate letters to the minister, and prophecies were actual- ly fulfilled both in England and France. It is probable that these circumstances, exaggerated by her unre- strained imagination and her longing for the free sim- plicity of nature, finally determined lady Stanhope to leave England. William Pitt having recommended his niece to the care of the nation, she received a pension of twelve hundred pounds per annum, with which, after his death, she commenced a life of great state in the East, and acquired immense influence over the Arabian population. Her manner of life and romantic style are well known; we will only add, therefore, that it is un- fair to judge her character from the reports of English travellers, for she was one of those high-souled women who not only refused allegiance to the empty manner- isms she had cast off, but was well able to answer ever}'' fool who forced liis way into her presence according to his folly. She never married, but adopted the habit of an Arabian cavalier, and under those bright skies rode and dwelt where she pleased, virtually queen of the deserts and mistress of the ancient palaces of Zeno- bia. Her religion, which seems to have been sincere and profound, was compounded in about equal propor-