STILLINGFLEET, Edward, bishop of Worcester, was the son of Samuel Stillingfleet, gentleman, and was born at Cranborn in Dorsetshire in 1635. He was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge; and having received holy orders, was, in 1657, presented to the rectory of Sutton in Nottinghamshire. By publishing his Origines Sacra, one of the ablest defences of revealed religion that has ever been written, he soon acquired such reputation, that he was appointed preacher of the Rolls Chapel; and in January 1665 was presented to the rectory of St Andrews, Holborn. He was afterwards chosen lecturer at the Temple, and appointed chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II. In 1668 he took the degree of D.D.; and was soon after engaged in a dispute with those of the Romish religion, by publishing his discourse concerning the idolatry and fanaticism of the church of Rome, which discourse he afterwards defended against several antagonists. In 1680 he preached at Guildhall chapel a sermon on Phil. iii. 26, which he published under the title of “The Mischief of Separation ;” and this being immediately attacked by several writers, he in 1683 published his Unreasonableness of Separation. In 1685 appeared his Origines Britannica, or the Antiquities of the British Churches, in folio. During the reign of King James II. he wrote several tracts against popery, and was prolocutor of the convocation, as he had likewise been under Charles II. After the revolution he was advanced to the bishopric of Worcester, and was engaged in a dispute with the Socinians, and also with Mr Locke; in which last contest he is generally thought to have been unsuccessful. He died at Westminster in 1699, and was interred in the cathedral of Worcester, where a monument was erected to his memory by his son. Dr Stillingfleet wrote other works besides those here mentioned, which, with the above, have been reprinted in 6 vols. folio.

Stillingfleet, Benjamin, an ingenious naturalist, born in 1702, was the bishop’s grandson. His father, Edward Stillingfleet, M.D., was fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Gresham professor of physic: but marrying in 1692, he lost his lucrative offices and his father’s favour; a misfortune that affected both himself and his posterity. Having however entered the church, he obtained, by his father’s means, the living of Newington-Butts, which he immediately exchanged for those of Wood-Norton and Swanton in Norfolk. He died in 1708. Benjamin, his only son, was educated at Norwich school, which he left in 1720, with the character of an excellent scholar. He then went to Trinity College in Cambridge, at the request of Dr Bentley, the master, who had been private tutor to his father, domestic chaplain to his grandfather, and much indebted to die family. Here he was a candidate for a fellowship, but was rejected by the master’s influence. This was a severe and unexpected disappointment, and but little alleviated afterwards by Bentley’s apology, that it was a pity that a gentleman of Mr Stillingfleet’s parts should be buried within the walls of a college.

Perhaps, however, this ingratitude of Dr Bentley was not of any real disservice to Mr Stillingfleet. By being thrown into the world, he formed many honourable and valuable connections. He dedicated some translations of Linnaeus to the late Lord Lyttelton, partly, he says, from motives of private respect and honour. Lord Barrington gave him, in a very polite manner, the place of master of the barracks at Kensington; a favour to which Mr Stillingfleet, in the dedication of his Calendar of Flora to that nobleman, alludes with the greatest politeness, as well as the warmest gratitude. His Calendar of Flora was formed at Stratton in Norfolk in the year 1755, at the hospitable seat of his very worthy and ingenious friend Mr Marsham, who had made several observations of that kind, and had communicated to the public his curious observations on the growth of trees. But it was to Mr Wyndham of Felbrig in Norfolk that he appears to have had the greatest obligation: he travelled abroad with him, spent much of his time at his house, and was appointed one of his executors (Mr Garrick being another), with a considerable addition to an annuity which that gentleman had settled upon him in his lifetime.

Mr Stillingfleet’s genius seems, if we may judge from his works, to have led him principally to the study of natural history; which he prosecuted as an ingenious philosopher, an useful citizen, and a good man. In this walk of learning he mentions as his friends, Dr Watson, Dr Solander, Mr Hudson, Mr Price of Foxley, and some others; to whom may be added the ingenious Mr Pennant. Nor can we omit the flattering mention which Mr Gray makes of him in one of his letters, dated from London in 1761: “I have lately made an acquaintance with this philosopher, who lives in a garret here 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 very 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 is himself a botanist.”

Mr Stillingfleet published a volume of Miscellaneous Tracts, which is in much esteem, and does great honour to his head and heart. They are chiefly translations of some essays in the Amaenitates Academica, published by Linnaeus, interspersed with some observations and additions of his own. In this volume he shows also a taste for classical learning, and entertains us with some elegant poetical effusions of his own. But his Essay on Conversation, published in the first volume of Dodsley’s Collection of Poems, entitles him to a respectable station among our English poets. This poem is addressed to Mr Wyndham, with all that warmth of friendship which distinguishes Mr Stillingfleet. As it is chiefly didactic, it does not admit of so many ornaments as some compositions of other kinds. However, it contains much good sense, shows a considerable knowledge of mankind, and has several passages that, in point of harmony and easy versification, would not disgrace the writings of our most admired poets. Here more than once Mr Stillingfleet shows himself still sore for Dr Bentley’s cruel treatment of him; and towards the beautiful and moral close of it, where it is supposed he gives us a sketch of himself, seems to hint at a mortification of a more delicate nature, which he is said to have suffered from the other sex. To these disappointments it was perhaps owing that Mr Stillingfleet neither married nor went into orders. His London residence was in lodgings in Piccadilly, where he died in 1771, at the age of sixty-nine, leaving several valuable papers behind him. He was buried in St James’s church, without the slightest monument to his memory,