Percival Stockdale

Percival Stockdale (26 October 1736 – 14 September 1811) was an English poet, writer and reformer, active especially in opposing slavery.

Biography Born 26 October 1736 (O. S.) at Branxton, Northumberland, he was the only child of Thomas Stockdale, vicar of the parish and perpetual curate of Cornhill-on-Tweed, and his wife, Dorothy Collingwood of Murton, Northumberland. After spending six years at Alnwick grammar school, he went in 1751 to the grammar school at Berwick-upon-Tweed. He became acquainted with the Greek and Latin classics, and acquired a taste for poetry.

In 1754, Stockdale entered the University of Aberdeen, with a bursary for the united colleges of St. Leonard and St. Salvador. The death of his father in 1755 left the family with money troubles, and he accepted the offer of a lieutenancy in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He joined Admiral John Byng 's fleet, which anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar in May 1756. Stockdale, with part of his regiment, was on board HMS Revenge, in the expedition sent, under the command of Byng and Temple West, to the relief of the besieged garrison of St. Philip on Menorca. He returned to England in October 1756, and in November 1757 he left the army with the pretext of poor health. With William Roscoe, he defended the violence with which slaves liberated themselves.

Stockdale died at Lesbury on 14 September 1811, and was buried at Cornhill-on-Tweed.

Works Stockdale's major work was The Poet (1773), a poem. He wrote also: Essay on Misanthropy, 1783 Sermons on Important and Interesting Subjects, 1784 Ximenes, verse tragedy in five acts, not acted, 1788 Thirteen Sermons to Seamen, preached on board H.M.S. Leander in the Bay of Gibraltar, 1791 Letter to Granville Sharp, suggested by the present Insurrection of the Negroes in the Island of St. Domingo, 1791. A defence of the St. Domingue Slave Revolt. Observations on the Writings and Conduct of our present Political and Religious Reformers, 1792 Poetical Thoughts and Views on the Banks of the Wear, 1792 Letter to Mr. Bryant, occasioned by his late Remarks on Mr. Pope's Universal Prayer, 1793 Edition of James Thomson's Seasons, with biography, 1793 Letter to a Gentleman of the Philanthropic Society on the Liberty of the Press, 1794 The Invincible Island: a poem, with introductory Observations on the present War, 1797 Letters between the Honourable and Right Reverend Shute, by Divine Providence, Lord Bishop of Durham ... and Percival Stockdale, 1798 A Discourse on the Duties and Advantages of Old Age, Alnwick, 1801 A Remonstrance against Inhumanity to Animals, and particularly against the Savage Practice of Bull-Baiting, Alnwick, 1802 Verses on the abolition of the slave trade, 1804 Lectures on the truly eminent English Poets, 1807 Poems, a selection, 1808 Memoirs of his Life and Writings, containing many interesting Anecdotes of the Illustrious Men with whom he was connected, 2 vols. 1809. A letter from Percival Stockdale to Granville Sharp, Esq., suggested to the authour by the present insurrection of the Negroes in the island of St. Domingo. , 1811

Stockdale famously eulogized Samuel Johnson's cat Hodge in his An Elegy on a Friend's Favourite Cat. The poem appeared in the Universal Magazine for May 1771.