Sir John Stoddart was a writer and lawyer, and editor of The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

.

Biography

Stoddart, eldest son of John Stoddart, lieutenant in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, was born at Salisbury

Salisbury

Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...

. His only sister, Sarah, married, on 1 May 1808, William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...

. He was educated at Salisbury grammar school, and matriculated on 25 Oct. 1790 from Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

, where he was elected a student in 1791, and graduated B.A. in 1794, B.C.L. in 1798, and D.C.L. in 1801. He was admitted a member of the College of Advocates in 1801, and from 1803 to 1807 he was the king's and the admiralty advocate at Malta. During his time in Malta Stoddart was visited for a short time by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...

 who eventually was placed in the post of Public Secretary to the government.

Foray into journalism

After returning to England, Stoddard practiced in Doctors' Commons

Doctors' Commons

Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil law in London. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildings with rooms where its members lived and worked, and a large library...

. In 1810, he started an association with The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, and served as a leader-writer for the paper beginning in 1812. In April 1814, Stoddart entered into an agreement with John Walter

John Walter (second)

John Walter was the son of John Walter, the founder of The Times, and second editor of it.He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Trinity College, Oxford...

, the owner of The Times, in which he was named editor of the newspaper. A staunch Tory, Stoddart's intemperate articles soon generated much criticism. After Stoddart refused Walter's entreaties to moderate his tone, Walter empowered Thomas Barnes

Thomas Barnes (journalist)

Thomas Barnes was a British journalist, essayist, and editor. He is best known for his work with The Times which he edited from 1817 until his death in 1841.-Early life and education:...

, then a reporter, to edit Stoddard's leading articles. Ultimately, Stoddart's political excesses grew to the point where Walter was forced to dismiss him at the end of 1816. Barnes was named as his successor.

Two months later, Stoddard started a rival daily to The Times, entitled The New Times, which was soon amalgamated with the Day. For a short time it appeared as the Day and New Times, but dropped the first half of the title in 1818, and survived as the New Times until about 1828. During the period of his editorship he was scurrilously known as "Dr. Slop", and was the subject of several satires, of which A Slap at Slop (1820) ran through 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, and on 27 July was knighted by George IV at St. James's Palace. Finding that the Maltese complained that former judges were imperfectly acquainted with their language, he made himself master of Italian. He gave entire satisfaction in his office, and the islanders had perfect confidence in his decisions. He published in 1830–2 (3 parts) 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

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

 in the island he devoted himself to its suppression with great success.

Later years

Returning to England in 1840, he made progress in an etymological theory, which he believed would supplant that of Horne Tooke, and he embodied it in a work called Glossology, or the Historical Relations of Languages. Of this work he completed the first part only, which was published in 1858 in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana.

He died at 13 Brompton Square, London.

Personal life

In 1803 he married Isabella, eldest daughter of the Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, bart. She died on 2 Feb. 1846, having had, among other children, three sons: Henry Moncrieff, who died while a pupil at the Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

; John Frederick, a member of the Scottish bar in 1827, a judge in Ceylon in 1836, who died of a jungle fever while on circuit on 29 Aug. 1839 (Gent. Mag. 1840, i. 110); and William Wellwood, vicar of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, who died at Genoa on 21 Nov. 1856.

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.