about 100l. a year, half of which he gave to the support of an orphan niece and a widowed sister. His poverty prevented his marrying Anne Scudamore of Kentchurch, Herefordshire, whose acquaintance he made in London somewhat late in life. In gratitude to Lord Barrington he dedicated to him ‘The Calendar of Flora, Swedish and English, made in the year 1755,’ the latter at Stratton, where he had been staying with Marsham. To this was added a similar calendar compiled from Theophrastus, and in the preface Stillingfleet suggests the scheme alluded to by Gray, who wrote in 1761: ‘I have lately made an acquaintance with this philosopher [Stillingfleet], who lives in a garret in the winter, that he may support some near relations who depend upon him. He is always employed, consequently (according to my old maxim) always happy, always cheerful, and seems to me a worthy honest man. His present scheme is to send some persons, properly qualified, to reside a year or two in Attica, to make themselves acquainted with the climate, productions, and natural history of the country, that we may understand Aristotle, Theophrastus, &c., who have been heathen Greek to us for so many ages; and this he has got proposed to Lord Bute, no unlikely person to put it in execution, as he himself is a botanist’ (Mason, Memoirs … of Gray, iv. 70).
In 1761 Stillingfleet lost both his friends Robert Price and William Windham, the latter appointing him, in conjunction with Dr. Dampier and David Garrick, his executor, with the charge of his only son William Windham (1750–1812) [q. v.], afterwards the politician. This brought with it a slight addition to his income. In 1762 the second edition of the ‘Miscellaneous Tracts’ was published, with considerable enlargements, including ‘The Calendar of Flora’ and eleven plates to the ‘Observations on Grasses,’ drawn by Robert Price. Stillingfleet, who had tested several species of grasses in experimental plots at Foxley, in this work first proposed the English, or, as he termed them, ‘trivial’ names still used for our commoner species, and subsequently devoted several years to the collection of materials for a ‘General History of Husbandry.’ Towards this, six volumes of manuscript were found at his death, and published in the ‘Select Works.’
His last published work was the anonymous ‘Principles and Power of Harmony,’ an analysis of and commentary on Tartini's ‘Trattato di Musica’ (Padua, 1754), which Dr. Burney, though ignorant of its authorship, characterises as ‘an elegant, clear, and masterly performance’ (Present State of Music, iii. 131). This was published in the year of his death, which took place at his lodgings over a saddler's in Piccadilly on 15 Dec. 1771. He was buried in St. James's, Piccadilly, where his grand-nephew, Edward Hawke Locker, erected a tablet to his memory. The same modesty which caused him to write of himself with a small ‘i’ made him order all his papers to be burnt; but Pennant, in his ‘British Zoology’ (vol. iv. pref.) and in his ‘London’ (3rd ed. p. 138), alludes to his having made an exception of some notes sent to himself.
A portrait of Stillingfleet by Zoffany, formerly in the possession of Edward Hawke Locker [q. v.], was engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green in 1782, this engraving being copied on a smaller scale in 1810 by James Basire for Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes’ (vol. ii.) and Coxe's ‘Life.’ Dr. Alexander Garden named the genus of euphorbiaceous plants Stillingia in his honour.
Of his works, the ‘Thoughts concerning Happiness,’ by Irenæus Krantzovius, London, 1738, 8vo, was reprinted in the ‘Repository’ (1790, vol. iii.), and was translated into French by H. A. Boulanger, as ‘Traité Mathématique sur le Bonheur,’ Paris, 1791. The ‘Essay on Conversation,’ in Dodsley's ‘Collection,’ London, 1748, was reprinted by Foulis, Glasgow, 1783, and in the ‘Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet,’ published by Coxe in 3 vols. in 1811. ‘Some Thoughts occasioned by the late Earthquakes: a Poem,’ London, 1750, which is very scarce, is also reprinted in the ‘Select Works.’ The ‘Miscellaneous Tracts’ went into a third edition in 1775, and a fourth in 1791, and are partly included in the ‘Select Works,’ the ‘Observations on Grasses’ being supplemented by Professor Thomas Martyn, and illustrated by sixteen plates by James Sowerby. ‘A Discourse concerning the Irritability of some Flowers: a new Discovery, translated from the Italian [of Count Giov. dal Colvolo],’ London, 1767, 8vo, is also in the ‘Select Works.’
[Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet, by William Coxe, London, 1811, 3 vols. 8vo; Gent. Mag. 1776, xlvi. 162–4, and xlvii. 440; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes and Literary Illustrations; Fetis's Biographie des Musiciens; and the authorities above quoted.]
STILLINGFLEET, EDWARD (1635–1699), bishop of Worcester, born on 17 April 1635 at Cranborne, Dorset, was the seventh son of Samuel Stillingfleet (of the ancient family of Stillingfleet of Stillingfleet, Yorkshire) by Susanna, daughter of Edward
