Author: Stokes, George
Biography:
STOKES, George (c. 1787-1860 or 1789-1847: ancestry.com)
A Poem on the Death of the Princess Charlotte; or, Prince Leopold's Vision appeared anonymously in 1818 but seventy years later was attributed to “the Rev. George Stokes” by both HL and Cushing; Cushing adds “one of the trustees of the Religious Tract Society.” Of two possible candidates only one was Rev. but only the other was a writer for and trustee of the RTS. Supposing that the attribution is correct, the more likely candidate is the son of George Stokes of Old Swinford, born c. 1787. From Manchester College, York, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge (matric. 1806), but migrated to Trinity Hall in the same year (LLB 1812). He was baptised at St. Mary’s, Handsworth, Staffordshire, in 1818, and in the same year was ordained deacon and priest. He served as a curate at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, London, from 1819 to 1825. In the 1830s he was a lecturer and occasional examiner in Liverpool. On 30 July 1840 he married Mary Robson (b 1813) at St. Catharine’s, Liverpool; they appear not to have had children. Later positions included a curacy in Liverpool (1841-3) and chaplaincy of the Wolverhampton Union in Staffordshire (1848-58). He was vicar of St. Mary Magdalene, Taunton, Somerset (1858-60), and rector at Northleigh, Devon, from Aug. 1859. He died at the rectory on 5 Sept. 1860. His wife must have predeceased him since her sister was the sole executrix for his estate of under £450. The London silk manufacturer George Stokes was a trustee and secretary of the RTS and a co-founder and librarian of the Parker Society. He wrote mainly in the area of religious history, for example The Lollards (1834), The Rites and Worship of the Jews (1835), and Lives of the British Reformers (1836-47). In business with his brother Thomas in Gutter Lane, London, he was born on 7 May 1789. He died a wealthy man at Cheltenham on 31 May 1847. His wife, Susannah Mary Fletcher, died aged 54 in 1845. There were four girls by their marriage. (ancestry.com 9 Dec. 2024; findmypast.com 9 Dec. 2024; ACAD; CCEd 9 Dec. 2024; Liverpool Albion 16 Feb. 1835; OUCH 8 Aug. 1840; GM Oct. 1860, 438; W. Jones, Jubilee Memorial [1850], 94-104; W. Cushing, Anonyms [1889], 2: 512; Gloucester N & Q 3 [1887], 657; Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 6 Aug. 1859) JC