Benjamin Stillingfleet facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Benjamin Stillingfleet
Stillingfleet by Johann Zoffany, RA
Born	1702 Wood Norton, Norfolk, England
Died	15 December 1771 Piccadilly, England
Resting place	St James's Church, Piccadilly
Nationality	British
Occupation	Author
Known for	the source of the phrase Blue Stocking

Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702–1771) was a very smart English person. He was a botanist, which means he studied plants. He was also a polymath, someone who knows a lot about many different subjects. Plus, he was an author who wrote books.

Life Story

Early Life and Education

Benjamin Stillingfleet was born in 1702 in a place called Wood Norton in England. His parents were Mary Ann and Edward Stillingfleet. He was the only boy among four children.

Benjamin went to Norwich School and was very good at learning old languages like Latin and Greek. In 1720, he was invited to study at Trinity College, Cambridge. He earned his first degree in 1723. However, he was not chosen to become a Fellow (a special kind of teacher or researcher) at the college. Some say this was because the college Master, Richard Bentley, thought Benjamin was "too fine a gentleman" to stay hidden away in a college.

Travels and Adventures

After college, Benjamin worked as a tutor for a relative named William Windham at Felbrigg Hall. He did this for 13 years, partly because he needed money. He also went with Windham on a "Grand Tour." This was a long trip around Europe that young, wealthy men often took to learn about art and culture.

While they were in Switzerland, Benjamin and William had a lot of fun. They put on plays called pantomimes and got other tourists to help them act and watch. Benjamin was in charge of the music and the stage designs. This group was known as the "Common Room." In the summers, the same group went on scientific trips to find glaciers in the Alps that no one had written about yet.

Later Years and Studies

When Benjamin returned to England in 1742, he didn't have a job. But the Windham family gave him a yearly payment of 100 pounds for seven years. William Windham later became a member of the Royal Society because of the glacier explorations he did with Benjamin and his math skills, which Benjamin had taught him.

In his later years, Benjamin Stillingfleet spent a lot of time studying plants and music.

His Work with Plants

In 1759, he published a book called Miscellaneous Tracts. This book was about plants and helped make a new way of classifying plants popular. This system was created by a scientist named Linnaeus. In 1761, Benjamin was praised for helping William Hudson with another plant book called Flora Anglica.

Benjamin also wrote a Calendar of Flora in 1755. This book was based on old observations of plants and helped create the study of plant phenology. This is about how plants change with the seasons.

His Work with Music

For music, Benjamin translated a book by Giuseppe Tartini about music theory. He also wrote the words for an opera called Paradise Lost: An Oratorio. He had planned to publish his own version of the famous poem Paradise Lost, but he stopped when another version came out in 1749.

The Blue Stockings Society

In the early 1750s, a group of smart people started meeting. This group was part of the Blue Stocking Society movement. They liked to have interesting conversations instead of just playing cards. Many famous people were invited, including Benjamin Stillingfleet.

One story says that Benjamin wasn't rich enough to wear fancy black silk stockings, which were proper for formal meetings. So, he wore his everyday blue worsted stockings instead. A writer named James Boswell wrote that one time, when Benjamin wasn't there, someone said they were "nowhere without blue stockings."

The term bluestocking first referred to the casual and smart nature of these meetings. Later, it became a way to describe a woman who was very learned or intellectual.

His Death

Benjamin Stillingfleet died in 1771 in Piccadilly, England. He asked for all his papers to be burned after he died. He left his money to his only remaining sister. Years later, his nephew put up a monument to him at St James's Church, Piccadilly.

His Impact

Benjamin Stillingfleet helped make the Linnaean system for classifying plants very popular. This system is still used today!

He is also famous for being linked to the phrase bluestocking. The story goes that his blue stockings gave the Blue Stockings Society its name. This phrase is now used in many languages, like German (Blaustrumpf), Dutch (blauwkous), and French (bas-bleu).

His Writings

• Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History, Husbandry and Physick (1759)
• Paradise Lost: An Oratorio (1760) – Benjamin Stillingfleet wrote the words, and John Christopher Smith wrote the music.
• Principles and Power of Harmony (1771) – This was his translation of a music theory book.
• Literary life and select works of Benjamin Stillingfleet (1811)

Images for kids

• Muses in the Temple of Apollo

  This painting shows the Muses, who were goddesses of arts and sciences in Greek mythology.