Sir John Stoddart (6 February 1773 – 16 February 1856) was an English journalist and lawyer, who served as editor of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
''.
Biography
![Tom Quad, Christ Church 2004-01-21](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Tom_Quad%2C_Christ_Church_2004-01-21.jpg)
Stoddart, who was born at
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
, was the eldest son of John Stoddart, who was a lieutenant in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
. His only sister, Sarah, married, on 1 May 1808,
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English lan ...
. Stoddart was educated at Salisbury Grammar School, and, subsequently, at
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
, at which he matriculated on 25 October 1790, and graduated B.A. in 1794, B.C.L. in 1798, and D.C.L. in 1801. He was admitted as a member of the College of Advocates in 1801, and from 1803 to 1807 he was the Advocate of the Crown and of the Admiralty at Malta. During his time in Malta Stoddart was visited by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
.
Journalism
Stoddart subsequently returned to England to practice in the
Doctors' Commons
Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil (as opposed to common) law in London, namely ecclesiastical and admiralty law. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildi ...
. In 1810, he started an association with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', for which he served as a leader-writer from 1812. In April 1814, Stoddart entered into an agreement with
John Walter, the owner of ''The Times'', to become the editor of the newspaper. The staunch
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
sympathy of Stoddart's articles provoked censure, but Stoddart refused Walter's requests that he moderate his tone, and, consequently, Walter authorised
Thomas Barnes, then a reporter, to edit Stoddart's leading articles. However, Stoddart's political intemperacy increased until he was dismissed by Walter in winter 1816. Barnes became his successor.
[''The History of The Times'', vol. 1: ''The Thunderer in the Making, 1785-1841'' (London: Printing House Square, 1935), p. 157-161]
Two months later, Stoddart started a rival daily to ''The Times'', entitled ''The New Times,'' which was shortly amalgamated with the ''Day''. For a short time it appeared as the ''Day and New Times,'' but the first half of the title was removed in 1818, and survived as the ''New Times'' until about 1828. During the period of his editorship, Stoddart was scurrilously known as "Dr. Slop", and was the subject of several satires, of which ''A Slap at Slop'' (1820) had four editions.
Judicial career
His connection with the ''New Times'' probably ceased in 1826, when he was appointed chief justice and justice of the Vice-Admiralty Court in
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
. On 27 July he was knighted by
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
at St. James's Palace. Stoddart learned Italian because the Maltese complained that former judges had been imperfectly acquainted with the languages spoken on the island. He published in three parts, between 1830 and 1832, ''Trial by Jury: a Speech on the Opening of a Commission in Malta for establishing a modified Trial by Jury, translated from the Italian''. During an outbreak of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
on the island, he contributed to its successful suppression.
Later years in England
Stoddart returned to England in 1840. He studied etymological theory, which he believed would supplant that of
Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician, and philologist. Associated with radical proponents of parl ...
, and published the first part of the same, in a work named ''Glossology, or the Historical Relations of Languages'', in 1858 in the ''
Encyclopædia Metropolitana
''The Encyclopædia Metropolitana'' was an encyclopedic work published in London, from 1817 to 1845, by part publication. In all it came to quarto, 30 vols., having been issued in 59 parts (22,426 pages, 565 plates).
Origins
Initially the proje ...
''. He died at 13
Brompton Square
Brompton Square is a garden square in London's Brompton district, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
History
The initial development of the square was undertaken by James Bonnin in 1821.
Listed buildings
Many of the houses that ...
, London.
Personal life
On 1 August 1803, John Stoddart married
Isabella Moncrieff
Lady Isabella Moncrieff (1775–1846), who wrote under the name of Martha Blackford, was a Scottish writer who wrote numerous children books.
Biography
Isabella Moncrieff was the daughter of Reverend Henry Moncrieff-Wellwood and Susan Barc ...
, who was the eldest daughter of the Reverend Sir
Henry Wellwood-Moncreiff, 8th Baronet (1750 - 1828) and by Susan Robertson Barclay. Lady Isabella Moncrieff was born on 31 March 1774, and died on 2 February 1846. She wrote several novels under the pseudonym "Mrs. Martha Blackford".
At his death in 1856, the ''Annual Register'' reported that John Stoddart left "a very numerous family". ''A Register of the Scholars Admitted Into Merchant Taylors' School'' (1883) includes four Stoddarts as pupils. Henry Moncrieff Stoddart, born 23 July 1808, is identified as the eldest son of Sir John Stoddart. The register notes that he entered ''
Charterhouse School
(God having given, I gave)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, president ...
'' in 1817 and "died while a monitor at school". William Wellwood Stoddart (b. 9 November 1809), also entered Charterhouse in 1817. He became vicar of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, and died at Genoa on 21 Nov. 1856. Thomas Robertson Stoddart, who is identified as the third son of Sir John Stoddart, "died young." There was another son, Charles Benson Earle Stoddart (b. 8 May 1816).
Another son, John Frederick, became a member of the Scottish bar in 1827, a judge in Ceylon in 1836, and died of a jungle fever while on circuit on 29 Aug. 1839 (Gent. Mag. 1840, i. 110).
One daughter, Isabella Maxwell Stoddart, married Captain George Whitmore at Malta, on 22 February 1827. Another, Mary Anne Stoddart, married Francis Baring Atkinson at Malta on 24 December 1831, and died bearing a child at Marseilles, 29 November 1832.
''Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage'' (1865) mentions only one daughter, (Isabella) Whitmore, and three sons, John-Frederick, William, Thomas.
Publications
Stoddart published in 1801 ''Remarks on the Local Scenery and Manners of Scotland,'' London, 2 vols. 8vo. Of his writings on legal subjects, the most important was ''A Letter to Lord Brougham,'' one in the minority of the law lords by whom the great Irish marriage case, Queen v. Millis, was decided in 1844, and, as Stoddart endeavored to show, erroneously decided. On this case he also published in 1844 a pamphlet entitled ''Irish Marriage Question: Observations on the Opinions delivered by Lord Cottenham in the Irish Marriage Case,'' 1844. His legal acumen was also shown in his article "The Head of the Church" in the ''Law Review,'' February 1851, pp. 418–36. He translated from the French of Joseph Despaze ''The Five Men, or a review of the Proceedings and Principles of the Executive Directory of France, with the lives of the present Members,'' (1797); and, with Georg Heinrich Noehden, Schiller's ''Fiesco'', (1796), and ''Don Carlos'', (1798). To the quarto edition of the ''Encyclopædia Metropolitana'' he contributed "Grammar" (i. 1–193), and the introductory chapter on "The Uses of History as a Study" (ix. 1–80); and to the octavo edition, 1850, an introduction to the ''Study of Universal History'', besides "Glossology" in 1858.
References
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoddart, John
1773 births
1856 deaths
People from Salisbury
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
English male journalists
19th-century English judges
Members of Doctors' Commons
Chief justices of Malta
Knights Bachelor
Lawyers awarded knighthoods
English male non-fiction writers
Crown Colony of Malta judges