Benjamin Stillingfleet

Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702–1771) was a botanist, translator and author. He is said to be the first Blue Stocking, a phrase from which is derived the term bluestocking now used to describe a learned woman.

Life

Benjamin Stillingfleet was born in Wood Norton, Norfolk in 1702 to Mary Ann and Edward Stillingfleet, a physician. He was one of four children, but the only son. His grandfather, a Bishop, had died in 1699, but left no money to Benjamin's father as he disapproved of his father's opinions and his marriage to his mother. He was educated at Norwich School before obtaining a B.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1723. He failed to become a Fellow, partially because of the influence of Richard Bentley, Master of the college, who considered it a shame for a man of Stillingfleet's range of talents to 'be buried within the walls of a college'. He served as a tutor to bring in income. He was tutor to his relative William Windham at Felbrigg Hall and he taught him from the age of seven to twenty. He then set out to accompany William Windham on the Grand Tour returning several years later in 1742. Whilst in Switzerland they had organised over several winters a set of pantomimes using other "tourists" as cast helpers and audience. Stillingfleet was in charge of the music and the scenery. This group was known as the "Common Room". During the summers the same group would set out on scientific explorations finding the undocumented glaciers of the Alps.

Finally they returned to England, Stillingfleet, now out of work, was awarded a pension of 100 pounds per year for the next seven years by the Windham family. This gratitude was not entirely undeserved. Windham was to become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1744 based on the explorations that he, Stillingfleet (and others) had made of glaciers in Switzerland and his mathematical abilities which Stillingfleet had tutored.

Stillingfleet was again noted for his contribution when William Hudson FRS was lauded for his publication of Flora Anglica in 1761, said to be the first application of Linnean principles to botany in England. Others however have pointed to Stillingfleet's earlier work as the first.

A society was founded in the early 1750s by Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and others as a literary discussion group primarily for women. The society was noted for wanting conversation and did not encourage card playing. They invited various people to attend including Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Catharine Macaulay, Elizabeth Griffith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Ann Linley, Charlotte Lennox and Stillingfleet. One story tells that Stillingfleet was not rich enough to have the proper formal dress, which included black silk stockings, so he attended in everyday blue worsted stockings. James Boswell records that during a period of poor conversation when Stillingfleet was absent that it was remarked that they were "nowhere without blue stockings". The term came to refer to the informal quality of the gatherings and the emphasis on conversation over fashion. The word bluestocking today is used to mean any learned woman. It should be pointed out that other derivations of the term have also been suggested.

In his Letter from Mr. Stillingfleet to Mr. Windham on his coming on age, the botanist showed himself apologetic of Christianity. Stillingfleet died at his lodgings in Piccadilly and his papers were burnt following his own instructions. He left his estate to his one remaining sister. A monument was erected only after some years to his memory at nearby St. James church by his nephew.

Legacy

Stillingfleet's habits are said to be the derivation of the name of the Blue Stockings Society. The phrase is the derivation of the English word bluestocking which is applied to a learned or intellectual woman. The word by loan translation is also used in German as Blaustrumpf, in Dutch as blauwkous and in French as bas-bleu.

Works

• Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History, Husbandry and Physick (1759)
• Paradise Lost: An Oratorio (1760) words by Stillingfleet, music by John Christopher Smith
• Principles and Power of Harmony, (1771) – translation
• Literary life and select works of Benjamin Stillingfleet, (1811)