George Stanhope
Encyclopedia
George Stanhope was a clergy
man of the Church of England
, rising to be Dean of Canterbury
and a Royal Chaplain. He was also amongst the commissioners responsible for the building of fifty new churches
in London, and a leading figure in church politics of the early 18th century.
in south Derbyshire
, son of Thomas Stanhope (rector of Hartshorne, Derbyshire, vicar of St. Margaret's, Leicester, and chaplain to the Earls of Chesterfield and Clare). His grandfather, George Stanhope (d. 1644), was canon and precentor
of York from 1631, and was rector of Wheldrake
, Yorkshire, and chaplain to James I
and Charles I
; he was dispossessed during the Commonwealth. The younger George was educated at Uppingham School
in Rutland
, Eton College
and King's College
in Cambridge
. He graduated
in 1681 and obtained his Masters in 1685 and entered into holy orders
. However he remained three years longer at Cambridge. In 1687 he was appointed curate
of Stow cum Quy
, Cambridgeshire
, and in 1688 he was appointed rector of Tewin
, Hertfordshire
(Tewin Register), and on 3 August 1689 of Lewisham
, Kent, being presented to the latter by Lord Dartmouth
, to whose son he was tutor, both then and apparently for five years afterwards. He became a Doctor of Divinity
in 1697, and he was appointed chaplain to William and Mary
. In 1701 he was appointed Boyle lecturer. In the year following he was presented to the vicarage of Deptford
, was reappointed Royal chaplain by Queen Anne
, and on 23 March 1704 was made Dean of Canterbury, still retaining Lewisham and Deptford.
at a period of bitter conflict with the upper house under Francis Atterbury
's leadership. As a man of peace, in friendship with Robert Nelson
on one side, and with Edward Tenison and Gilbert Burnet
on the other, Stanhope was proposed by the moderate party as prolocutor in 1705, but was defeated by the high churchman, Dr. William Binckes
. In 1711, Stanhope was among the founding group that would organise the building of fifty new churches
to replace those lost in the Great Fire of London
, and was re-appointed in 1715 after the accession of George I. After Atterbury's elevation to the see of Rochester
in 1713 he succeeded him as prolocutor, and was twice re-elected.
The most prominent incident of his presidency was the censure of the Arian
doctrine of Samuel Clarke
in 1714. Early in 1717 the lower house of Convocation also censured a sermon by Bishop Benjamin Hoadly
which had been preached before the king and published by royal command. To stop the matter from going to the upper house, convocation was hastily prorogued (May 1717). It was thenceforth formally summoned from time to time, only to be instantly prorogued. On the occasion of one of these prorogations Stanhope broke up the meeting (14 February 1718) in order to prevent Tenison from reading a protestation in favour of Hoadly. It was probably in consequence of this action that he lost the royal chaplaincy, which he had held in the first year of George I. From this date the Convocation of the English Clergy remained in abeyance until its revival in the province of Canterbury in 1852, and in that of York in 1861.
Stanhope was one of the great preachers of his time, and preached before Queen Anne in St Paul's Cathedral
in 1706 and 1710 on two of the great services of national thanksgiving for the Earl of Marlborough
's victories. In 1719 he had a correspondence with Atterbury, which dealt partly with the appointment of Thomas Sherlock
, afterwards Bishop of London
, to one of his curacies.
Stanhope founded the Charity School in High Street, Deptford
, known as Dean Stanhope's School. Dean Stanhope's school eventually merged and became part of the Addey and Stanhope School
.
He died at Bath on 18 March 1728, and was buried in St. Mary's church, Lewisham, where a monument with a long inscription was erected to his memory. According to Daniel Lysons
(1796):
There were two portraits of him in the Deanery at Canterbury.
, Staffordshire, and had
by her a son, who predeceased him, and five daughters, of whom Mary married, in 1712,
William, son of Bishop Burnet, and died two years afterwards. After his first wife's death
in 1707 the dean married, Ann Parker, half-sister of Sir Charles Wager
; she survived him by two years.
(1694 ; 2nd ed. 1700, 8vo), Charron
's 'Books on Wisdom ' (1697, 3 vols.), and Marcus Aurelius (1697 ; 2nd ed. 1699, 4to). He modernised The Christian Directory of Robert Parsons
the Jesuit (1703, 8vo ; 4th ed. 1716) ; dedicated to Princess Anne a volume of Pious Meditations (1701; 2nd ed. 1720), drawn from St. Augustine
, St. Anselm, and St. Bernard
; and he translated the Greek Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes
. Hutton, who edited the posthumous edition (1730) of his translation of Andrewes, likened Stanhope's character to that of Andrewes. But the style of the translation is absolutely unlike the original. In place of the barbed point and abruptness of the Greek, the English is all smoothed out. Subsequent editions of the work appeared in 1808, 1811, 1815, 1818, 1826, and 1832. Stanhope followed the same paraphrastic system in a translation of Thomas a. Kempis's Imitatio Christi, which appeared in 1698 under the title The Christian's Pattern, or a Treatise of the Imitation of Christ, 2 pts. London, 8vo. A fifth edition appeared in 1706, a twelfth in 1733, and new editions in 1746, 1751, 1793, 1814, and 1865. In 1886 Henry Morley
edited it for the collection of a hundred books chosen by Sir John Lubbock
. 'The pithy style of the original is lost in flowing sentences that pleased the reader in Queen Anne's reign.'
Stanhope's principal contribution to divinity is "The Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels" (vols. i. and ii. 1705, vol. iii. 1706, vol. iv. 1708), dedicated originally to Queen Anne, and in a new edition to George I on his accession (1714). It was a favourite book in the 18th century. Its defect is the neglect of the organic relation of collect, epistle, and gospel ; but it contains much that is solid, sensible, and practical in clear and easy language, quite free from controversial bitterness. In the preface Stanhope says that the work was planned for the use of the little Prince George
, who died in 1700.
Besides the works mentioned above Stanhope published :
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
man of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, rising to be Dean of Canterbury
Dean of Canterbury
The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The office of dean originated after the English Reformation, and its precursor office was the prior of the cathedral-monastery...
and a Royal Chaplain. He was also amongst the commissioners responsible for the building of fifty new churches
Commission for Building Fifty New Churches
The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches was an organisation set up by Act of Parliament in England in 1711, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of London...
in London, and a leading figure in church politics of the early 18th century.
Biography
George was born on 5 March 1660 at Hartshorne, near SwadlincoteSwadlincote
Swadlincote is a town and unparished area in South Derbyshire, about southeast of Burton-upon-Trent and about south of Derby. It is the main town of South Derbyshire and the seat of South Derbyshire District Council....
in south Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, son of Thomas Stanhope (rector of Hartshorne, Derbyshire, vicar of St. Margaret's, Leicester, and chaplain to the Earls of Chesterfield and Clare). His grandfather, George Stanhope (d. 1644), was canon and precentor
Precentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
of York from 1631, and was rector of Wheldrake
Wheldrake
Wheldrake is a village and civil parish located south-east of York. Administratively it is in the unitary authority of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England....
, Yorkshire, and chaplain to James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
and Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
; he was dispossessed during the Commonwealth. The younger George was educated at Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
in Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and King's College
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. He graduated
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1681 and obtained his Masters in 1685 and entered into holy orders
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
. However he remained three years longer at Cambridge. In 1687 he was appointed curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
of Stow cum Quy
Stow cum Quy
Stow cum Quy , commonly referred to as Quy, is a parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Situated around 4 miles north east of Cambridge on the medieval Cambridge to Newmarket road, it covers an area of ....
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, and in 1688 he was appointed rector of Tewin
Tewin
Tewin is a village in the English county of Hertfordshire, between the towns of Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Welwyn and the county town Hertford, it is within commuting distance of London...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
(Tewin Register), and on 3 August 1689 of Lewisham
Lewisham
Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, Kent, being presented to the latter by Lord Dartmouth
George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth
Admiral George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth PC was an English naval commander who gave distinguished service to both Charles II and James II.-Biography:...
, to whose son he was tutor, both then and apparently for five years afterwards. He became a Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
in 1697, and he was appointed chaplain to William and Mary
William and Mary
The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...
. In 1701 he was appointed Boyle lecturer. In the year following he was presented to the vicarage of Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
, was reappointed Royal chaplain by Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
, and on 23 March 1704 was made Dean of Canterbury, still retaining Lewisham and Deptford.
Church politics
Stanhope, as Dean, entered the lower house of ConvocationConvocation of the English Clergy
The Convocation of the English Clergy is a synodical assembly of the Church of England consisting of bishops and clergy.- Background and introduction :...
at a period of bitter conflict with the upper house under Francis Atterbury
Francis Atterbury
Francis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop.-Early life:He was born at Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, where his father was rector. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a tutor...
's leadership. As a man of peace, in friendship with Robert Nelson
Robert Nelson (nonjuror)
Robert Nelson was an English lay religious writer and nonjuror.-Life:He was born in London on 22 June 1656, the only surviving son of John Nelson, a merchant in the Turkey trade, by Delicia, daughter of Lewis and sister of Sir Gabriel Roberts, who, like John Nelson, was a member of the Levant...
on one side, and with Edward Tenison and Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...
on the other, Stanhope was proposed by the moderate party as prolocutor in 1705, but was defeated by the high churchman, Dr. William Binckes
William Binckes
William Binckes was an English preacher and sermon writer, noted for his term as dean of Lichfield.-Biography:He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1674, was elected to a fellowship at Peterhouse, and took the degree of M.A. in 1678...
. In 1711, Stanhope was among the founding group that would organise the building of fifty new churches
Commission for Building Fifty New Churches
The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches was an organisation set up by Act of Parliament in England in 1711, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of London...
to replace those lost in the Great Fire of London
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
, and was re-appointed in 1715 after the accession of George I. After Atterbury's elevation to the see of Rochester
Bishop of Rochester
The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the west of the county of Kent and is centred in the city of Rochester where the bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin...
in 1713 he succeeded him as prolocutor, and was twice re-elected.
The most prominent incident of his presidency was the censure of the Arian
Arian
Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...
doctrine of Samuel Clarke
Samuel Clarke
thumb|right|200px|Samuel ClarkeSamuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican clergyman.-Early life and studies:...
in 1714. Early in 1717 the lower house of Convocation also censured a sermon by Bishop Benjamin Hoadly
Benjamin Hoadly
Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...
which had been preached before the king and published by royal command. To stop the matter from going to the upper house, convocation was hastily prorogued (May 1717). It was thenceforth formally summoned from time to time, only to be instantly prorogued. On the occasion of one of these prorogations Stanhope broke up the meeting (14 February 1718) in order to prevent Tenison from reading a protestation in favour of Hoadly. It was probably in consequence of this action that he lost the royal chaplaincy, which he had held in the first year of George I. From this date the Convocation of the English Clergy remained in abeyance until its revival in the province of Canterbury in 1852, and in that of York in 1861.
Stanhope was one of the great preachers of his time, and preached before Queen Anne in St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
in 1706 and 1710 on two of the great services of national thanksgiving for the Earl of Marlborough
Earl of Marlborough
Earl of Marlborough is a title that has been created twice, both times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came on 5 February 1626 in favour of James Ley, 1st Baron Ley, Lord Chief Justice and Lord High Treasurer...
's victories. In 1719 he had a correspondence with Atterbury, which dealt partly with the appointment of Thomas Sherlock
Thomas Sherlock
Thomas Sherlock was a British divine who served as a Church of England bishop for 33 years. He is also noted in church history as an important contributor to Christian apologetics.-Life:...
, afterwards Bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
, to one of his curacies.
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
, known as Dean Stanhope's School. Dean Stanhope's school eventually merged and became part of the Addey and Stanhope School
Addey and Stanhope School
Addey and Stanhope School is a voluntary-aided, co-educational secondary school, located in Lewisham, London, UK. A former grammar school, with origins dating to 1606, Addey and Stanhope became a specialist science and technology school in 2006. The school is also part of the Crossways Federation,...
.
He died at Bath on 18 March 1728, and was buried in St. Mary's church, Lewisham, where a monument with a long inscription was erected to his memory. According to Daniel Lysons
Daniel Lysons
Daniel Lysons was a notable English antiquary and topographer of the late 18th and early 19th century, who published the four-volume The Environs of London ....
(1796):
His monument, the inscription on which has been already given, deserved a better fate than to be thrown aside in the vault, where it now lies, when the church was rebuilt. A place should have been found within the new walls for the memorial of a man who was for thirty-eight years so distinguished an ornament of the parish.
There were two portraits of him in the Deanery at Canterbury.
Family
He married, first. Olivia, daughter of Charles Cotton of BeresfordBeresford
Beresford can refer to:People*Beresford Places*Beresford, British Columbia*Beresford, Republic of Ireland*Beresford, Manitoba*Beresford, New Brunswick within Beresford Parish, New Brunswick*Beresford, South Dakota...
, Staffordshire, and had
by her a son, who predeceased him, and five daughters, of whom Mary married, in 1712,
William, son of Bishop Burnet, and died two years afterwards. After his first wife's death
in 1707 the dean married, Ann Parker, half-sister of Sir Charles Wager
Charles Wager
Sir Charles Wager was a British Admiral and First Lord of the Admiralty between 1733 and 1742.Despite heroic active service and steadfast administration and diplomatic service, Wager's reputation has suffered from a profoundly mistaken idea that the navy was then at a low ebb...
; she survived him by two years.
Literary works
Stanhope's literary works were chiefly translations or adaptations. He translated EpictetusEpictetus
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
(1694 ; 2nd ed. 1700, 8vo), Charron
Pierre Charron
Pierre Charron was a French 16th-century Catholic theologian and philosopher, and a disciple and contemporary of Michel Montaigne.-Biography:...
's 'Books on Wisdom ' (1697, 3 vols.), and Marcus Aurelius (1697 ; 2nd ed. 1699, 4to). He modernised The Christian Directory of Robert Parsons
Robert Parsons
Robert Parsons may refer to:* Robert Parsons , English composer* Robert Parsons , English priest* Robert E. Parsons, American politician* Bob Parsons , American entrepreneur...
the Jesuit (1703, 8vo ; 4th ed. 1716) ; dedicated to Princess Anne a volume of Pious Meditations (1701; 2nd ed. 1720), drawn from St. Augustine
St. Augustine
-People:* Augustine of Hippo or Augustine of Hippo , father of the Latin church* Augustine of Canterbury , first Archbishop of Canterbury* Augustine Webster, an English Catholic martyr.-Places:*St. Augustine, Florida, United States...
, St. Anselm, and St. Bernard
St. Bernard
-People:*Saint Bernard of Clairvaux *Saint Bernard of Menthon *Saint Bernard of Thiron , founder of the Tironensian Order*Saint Bernard of Vienne *Saint Bernard degli Uberti -People:*Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)*Saint Bernard of Menthon (923–1008)*Saint Bernard of Thiron (1046–1117),...
; and he translated the Greek Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes
Lancelot Andrewes
Lancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the...
. Hutton, who edited the posthumous edition (1730) of his translation of Andrewes, likened Stanhope's character to that of Andrewes. But the style of the translation is absolutely unlike the original. In place of the barbed point and abruptness of the Greek, the English is all smoothed out. Subsequent editions of the work appeared in 1808, 1811, 1815, 1818, 1826, and 1832. Stanhope followed the same paraphrastic system in a translation of Thomas a. Kempis's Imitatio Christi, which appeared in 1698 under the title The Christian's Pattern, or a Treatise of the Imitation of Christ, 2 pts. London, 8vo. A fifth edition appeared in 1706, a twelfth in 1733, and new editions in 1746, 1751, 1793, 1814, and 1865. In 1886 Henry Morley
Henry Morley
Henry Forster Morley was a writer on English literature and one of the earliest Professors of English Literature.-Life:...
edited it for the collection of a hundred books chosen by Sir John Lubbock
John Lubbock
John Lubbock is the name of:*Sir John Lubbock, 1st Baronet *Sir John Lubbock, 2nd Baronet , English banker*Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet , English banker, barrister, mathematician and astronomer...
. 'The pithy style of the original is lost in flowing sentences that pleased the reader in Queen Anne's reign.'
Stanhope's principal contribution to divinity is "The Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels" (vols. i. and ii. 1705, vol. iii. 1706, vol. iv. 1708), dedicated originally to Queen Anne, and in a new edition to George I on his accession (1714). It was a favourite book in the 18th century. Its defect is the neglect of the organic relation of collect, epistle, and gospel ; but it contains much that is solid, sensible, and practical in clear and easy language, quite free from controversial bitterness. In the preface Stanhope says that the work was planned for the use of the little Prince George
Prince George
-British princes:* Prince George Augustus, later George II of Great Britain * Prince George William of Great Britain , son of George II* Prince George William Frederick, later George III of the United Kingdom...
, who died in 1700.
Besides the works mentioned above Stanhope published :
- Fifteen Sermons 1700.
- The Boyle Lecture 1702.
- Twelve Sermons 1726.