Edward Stillingfleet 1635-1699

Edward STILLINGFLEET 1635-1699

Biographical Note

Born at Cranborne, Dorset; son of Samuel Stillingfleet. Entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1649. Graduated BA and was made a fellow in 1653. Proceeded MA in 1656 and awarded DD in 1668. He became a preacher and lecturer at the Rolls Chapel, and in 1672 a residentiary canon of St Paul's. He was also a chaplain to the king and a canon of Canterbury. Appointed archdeacon of London in 1677, dean of St Paul's in 1678, and elected bishop of Worcester in 1689. Stillingfleet produced many theological treatises in defense of Anglican orthodoxy. By the time of his death, he was the leading theologian and apologist of the Church of England (ODNB). He was closely associated, in his thinking, with Isaac Barrow and John Tillotson.

Books

His library (ca.10000 volumes) was divided mainly between Narcissus Marsh, who bought the printed books for £2500 in 1705 (thus becoming one of the major components of Marsh's Library in Dublin), and Sir Robert Harley, who bought the manuscripts for £175 in 1707 (these, therefore, are now among the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Library).

Sources

• McCarthy, M., All graduates and gentlemen, Dublin, 1980.
• Till, Barry. '"Stillingfleet, Edward (1635–1699), bishop of Worcester and theologian."' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Wright, C. E., Fontes Harleianae, London, 1972.