# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stoughton, John

​STOUGHTON, JOHN (1807–1897), dissenting minister, son of Thomas Stoughton by his wife, Sarah Bullard, daughter of the master of the Norwich lunatic asylum (Bethel Hospital), was born in the parish of St. Michael at Plea, Norwich, on 18 Nov. 1807. His father, son of an admiral in the navy, was a strict churchman. He died when Stoughton was only five years old, and the boy's education was somewhat neglected. His mother, a Friend, taught him to read, and sent him to the Norwich grammar school. While there he saw something of the intellectual coterie which then gave Norwich an exceptional position among provincial cities [see Taylor, William, (1765–1836)]. Placed in the office of a Roman catholic lawyer, Stoughton turned with zest from Blackstone and De Lolme to the study of Milner's ‘End of Religious Controversy,’ and convinced himself that the independent churches most nearly corresponded to the primitive type. To this view he adhered through life. Abandoning the law, Stoughton in 1828 entered Highbury College, where the society of his contemporary, Henry Rogers [q. v.], formed a potent intellectual stimulus.
On his ordination in May 1833 Stoughton was called to the co-pastorate of the congregational church at Windsor. This charge he resigned after ten years to succeed to that of Hornton Street church, Kensington. He remained at Hornton Street for more than thirty years. Though he never took rank among the masters of pulpit eloquence, his sermons attracted the more cultivated middle class. His leisure he devoted to organisations for evangelical propaganda and to literary work, chiefly historical, which gained him wide recognition. He enjoyed the respect and friendship of some dignitaries of the church of England, among them Deans Alford, Hook, and Stanley, and Archbishops Tait and Magee. In 1856 he delivered the Congregational Lecture on ‘The Ages of Christendom before the Reformation,’ and was elected chairman of the Congregational Union.
In 1862 appeared his first important work, ‘Church and State Two Hundred Years Ago: a History of Ecclesiastical Affairs in England from 1660 to 1663,’ London, 8vo. There followed his elaborate ‘Ecclesiastical History of England’ (Civil Wars, Commonwealth, and Restoration), London, 1867–70, 4 vols. 8vo, which, though unduly diffuse in style, evinced careful study of original sources and freedom from pedantry and prejudice. With its sequels—‘Religion in England under Queen Anne and the Georges,’ London, 1878, 2 vols. 8vo, and ‘Religion in England from 1800 to 1880,’ London, 1884, 2 vols. 8vo—it forms an important contribution to the religious history of England.
At the instance of Lord Ebury, Stoughton compiled an account of nonconformist modes of communicating, which was appended to the fourth report of the ritual commission, 1870 (Parl. Papers, 1870, No. xix.). Having accepted in 1872 the chair of historical theology in New College, St. John's Wood, he resigned on 11 April 1874 the Kensington charge. With his professorial and literary work he combined for many years occasional duty as a preacher. In the summer of 1876 he arranged a conference between churchmen and dissenters, which met on 4 July in a room in the House of Lords under the presidency of Archbishop Tait, and discussed, without result, the means to co-operation in Christian effort. In 1877 he delivered in ​Westminster Abbey a lecture on missions, part of a series of discourses by eminent nonconformists instituted by Dean Stanley by way of protest against ecclesiastical exclusiveness. He was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of Dean Stanley on 25 July 1881. He attended the conferences held under the auspices of the evangelical alliance at New York in October 1873, at Basel in September 1879, and at Edinburgh in October 1885. On 27 June 1884 he resigned his chair at New College. His later days were spent in retirement at Ealing, varied by visits to Tunbridge Wells. He died of old age at Ealing on 24 Oct. 1897, and was buried in Ealing cemetery.
Stoughton received from the university of Edinburgh in 1868 the honorary degree of D.D., and from the Athenæum Club in 1874 the distinction of election by the committee on the nomination of Matthew Arnold. He was a man of fine figure and features and robust physique. He married, on 12 May 1835, the daughter of George Cooper of Windsor. She died in 1879. Of his eleven children by her four survive—viz. Mr. T. Wilberforce Stoughton, partner in the firm of Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton, and three married daughters.
Stoughton's culture was liberal, and was improved by much travel not only in France and Germany, but also in Italy—Rome he visited thrice—Spain, and Palestine. His travels furnished him with materials for three popular books of some merit—viz. ‘Homes and Haunts of Luther,’ London, 1875, 4to; new edit. 1883, 8vo; ‘Footprints of Italian Reformers,’ London, 1881, 8vo; and ‘The Spanish Reformers, their Memories and Dwelling Places,’ London, 1883, 8vo.
Stoughton was no systematic theologian, and, after having his say on the Oxford movement (Lectures on Tractarian Theology, London, 1843, 12mo), eschewed controversy. His only contribution to apologetics was a lecture on ‘The Nature and Value of the Miraculous Testimony to Christianity,’ printed in ‘Modern Scepticism,’ ed. Ellicott, London, 1881, 8vo. Among his minor works, mainly historical, were (all published in London): 1. ‘Notices of Windsor in the Olden Time,’ 1844, 12mo. 2. ‘Spiritual Heroes, or Sketches of the Puritans, their Characters and Times,’ 1848, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1850. 3. ‘P. Doddridge: his Life and Labours,’ 1851, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1852. 4. ‘Lights of the World, or Illustrations of Character drawn from the Records of the Christian Life,’ 1852, 12mo; new edit. 1876. 5. ‘Scenes in other Lands, with their Associations,’ 1856, 8vo. 6. ‘The Pen, the Palm, and the Pulpit,’ 1858, 8vo. 7. ‘Lessons for Nonconformists,’ 1862, 8vo. 8. ‘Windsor: its History and Description of the Castle and Town,’ 1862, 8vo. 9. ‘Shades and Echoes of Old London,’ 1864, 16mo; new edit. 1889, 8vo. 10. ‘Our English Bible: its Translations and Translators,’ 1878, 8vo. 11. ‘Worthies of Science,’ 1879, 8vo. 12. ‘William Wilberforce,’ 1880, 8vo. 13. ‘Introduction to Historical Theology, being a Sketch of Doctrinal Progress from the Apostolic Era to the Reformation,’ London, 1880, 8vo. 14. ‘Reminiscences of Congregationalism Fifty Years Ago,’ 1881, 8vo. 15. ‘W. Penn, the Founder of Pennsylvania,’ 1882, 8vo. 16. ‘Howard the Philanthropist, and his Friends,’ 1884, 8vo. 17. ‘Golden Legends of the Olden Time,’ 1885, 8vo. 18. ‘The Rise and Progress of Congregationalism in the County of Norfolk,’ 1886, 8vo. 19. ‘The Revolution of 1688 in its bearings on Protestant Nonconformity,’ 1888, 8vo. 20. ‘Lights and Shadows of Primitive Christendom,’ 1891, 8vo. 21. ‘Recollections of a Long Life,’ 1894, 8vo. 22. ‘Lights and Shadows of Church Life,’ 1895, 8vo.
J. M. R.