749 



STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER. 



STOWELL, BARON. 



760 



in folio, the first in 1615, the second iu 1631. Of the latter, still in 

 black letter, the full title is ' Annales, or a General Chronicle of 

 England ; begun by John Stow, and augmented with matters forraigne 

 and domeatique, antieut and moderne, unto the end of this present 

 year 1631, by Edmund Howes.' In hia dedication to the king how- 

 ever Howe's intimates that he had been no less than thirty years 

 employed upon the work, and that he had undertaken and performed 

 the task in consequence of his " oath and promise made to the late 

 most reverend prelate Dr. Whitgift, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury." 

 We do not find that he professes to have made use of any manuscript 

 materials left by Stow. 



Stow's other work, his ' Survey of London,' was first published in a 

 quarto volume in 1598 ; and again, iu the same form, with consider- 

 able additions, in 1603. Aft^r the author's death, a third edition, also 

 in 4to, was published in 1618, by A. M. (Anthony Monday), who, 

 according to Strype, " made several additions (as he pretended) which, 

 or much of which (as he hinted in his Epistle), he had formerly from 

 Stow himself, who, while he was alive, delivered him some of his best 

 collections, and used importunate persuasions with him to correct 

 what he found amiss, and to proceed in perfecting a work so worthy." 

 A fourth edition, in folio, came out in 1633, professing on the title- 

 page to be "now completely finisbed by the study and labour of A. M., 

 H. D. (Humphrey Dyson), and others." Strype gives C. J. as one of 

 the contributors, meaning probably the C. I. whose signature is 

 appended to the prefatory address to the reader. The next edition 

 was that published by Strype, in 1720, in 2 vols. fol., each twice the 

 size of the folio of 1633. Strype's additions indeed made the 'Survey' 

 for the greater part a new work. 



Stow, in various passages of his ' Annals,' claims the continuation of 

 Holiushed's 'Chronicle' from 1576 to 1586 as his own handiwork. He 

 appears to have at least supplied a great part of the materials for that 

 portion of the work ; but he is merely mentioned as one of several 

 contributors in the Epistle to the Reader prefixed to the edition of 

 1587 by A. F. (Abraham Fleming), who besides takes to himself the 

 credit of having digested the whole. In his ' Annals,' under the yeur 

 1400, Stow states that the edition of Chaucer published (by Speght) 

 in 1569 was founded upon divers written copies corrected by him. 

 Dr. David Powel, in his ' History of Cambria,' published in 1584, 

 acknowledges that he derived important assistance from Stow, who 

 supplied him with a considerable number of manuscript historians, 

 of which he had made use. Stow had possessed himself of a large 

 collection of curious and valuable manuscripts, some originals, some 

 transcribed by his own hand; among the latter, the six volumes of 

 Leland's 'Collectanea' (since printed by Hearne), which he sold to 

 Camden for a life annuity of eight pounds a year. 



The hard fate of Stow in his old age is well known. The laborious 

 and acute investigator of antiquity, and faithful and graphic depictor 

 of the manners and customs of his own time, was left by his country- 

 men, when he had reached his eightieth year, literally to beg his bread. 

 James I. granted letters patent authorising Stow to collect the volun- 

 tary contributions of the people throughout the greater part of the 

 kingdom, and the same privilege was renewed to him the following 

 year. The letters recite that, " Whereas our loving subject John 

 Stowe (a very aged and worthy member of our city of London), this 

 five and forty years hath to his great charge, and with neglect of his 

 ordinary means of maintenance (for the general good, as well of pos- 

 terity as of the present age), compiled and published diverse necessary 

 books and chronicles ; and therefore we, in recompense of these his 

 painful labours, and for the encouragement to the like, have in our 

 royal inclination been pleased to grant our Letters patent under our 

 great seal of England, dated the 8th day of March 1603 [1604 accord- 

 ing to our present mode of -reckoning], thereby authorising him, the 

 said John Stowe, and his deputies, to collect amongst our loving sub- 

 jects, their voluntary contributions and kiud gratuities;" and the 



document concludes by recommending " his cause, having 



already in our own person, and of our special grace, begun the largesse 

 for the example of others." This document, referred to by Strype, was 

 first printed by Mr. Bolton Corney, in his ' Curiosities of Literature, 

 Illustrated,' p. ;.5, and is reprinted by Mr. Thorns, ' Life of Stow,' p. xi. 



Stow died of the stone colic, on the 5th of April 1605, and was 

 buried in the parish church of St. Andrew Undershaft, where his 

 monument, exhibiting his effigy, erected by his widow, is still to be 

 seen. Strype says that he left four daughters, but whether any sons 

 he could not learn. 



* STOWE, HARRIET ELIZABETH BEECHER, is one of twelve 

 children (several others of whom have gained distinction in literature) 

 born to the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, himself a man of note as a writer 

 and Presbyterian preacher in the United States. When Mrs. Stowe was 

 born, her father was settled at Litchfield in Connecticut, in charge of 

 a Presbyterian congregation ; thence he removed to Boston, where he 

 occupied the chief Presbyterian pulpit till 1832, when he was called 

 upon to assume the office of principal iu a new seminary for the training 

 of Presbyterian ministers which had been founded near Cincinnati. 

 A man of great energy, of strong opinions on theological and social 

 topics, and full of practical zeal as a reformer of social abuses, Dr. 

 Beecher seems to have imparted these characteristics to his children, 

 and more especially to his daughter?. One of these, Catherine Esther 

 Beecher, an elder sister of Harriet, acquired celebrity by her exertions 



in the cause of female education in America. She opened a school iu 

 1 822 at Hartford ; and the fame of the school was increased by the 

 publication by Miss Beecher of various text-books for its use, and for 

 use in other institutions of the kind. For a time Harriet assisted her 

 sister in this school ; but in 1832 she accompanied the rest of the 

 family to Cincinnati. Here she married one of her father's colleagues, 

 the Rev. Professor Calvin E. Stowe, then already of some distinc- 

 tion as a theological writer, and better known since that time as the 

 author of various religious works which have been widely read on this 

 side of the Atlantic as well as in America. From the time of her 

 marriage, Mrs. Stowe was in the habit of occasionally writing short 

 tales and sketches with a religious or philanthropic purpose ; which 

 tales and sketches published in magazines and newspapers, or other- 

 wise were destined .to be resuscitated afterwards when their authoress 

 became famous. Among them was a collection published together at 

 New York in 1844 under the title of ' The Mayflower, or Sketches of 

 Scenes and Characters among the Descendants of the Pilgrims;' and 

 among the most popular of the scattered onea were tracts bearing such 

 titles as ' Four Ways of Spending the Sabbath,' ' Let Every Man mind 

 his Own Business,' &c. Meanwhile Mrs. Stowe's father and her husband 

 were taking a deep and active interest in the question of American 

 slavery. They distinctly gave in their adhesion to the Abolitionist 

 Convention ; and they made the question a subject both of statistical 

 study and of public discussion. The students at Lane Seminary took 

 up the same cause heartily. The consequence was such a vehement 

 public opposition to Dr. Beecher and Professor Stowe by the pro- 

 slavery party at Cincinnati that at last they both resigned their offices. 

 In 1850 Professor Stowe was appointed to the chair of Biblical Lite- 

 rature in the theological college of Andover, Massachusetts. It was 

 here, in that same year, that Mrs. Stowe, who had shared in the 

 studies and exertions of her husband and father in the great question 

 of the republic, wrote her world-renowned tale of ' Uncle Tom's 

 Cabin.' It was published in parts in the ' Washington National Era,' 

 and no sooner was it completed than it was republished entire, and 

 commenced its extraordinary career. In the course of less than a 

 year more than 200,000 copies were sold in the United States ; and 

 this was but the prelude to its still more astounding successes in 

 Britain and other countries. Numberless reprints were published iu 

 Britain in 1852; the work was sold in scores in every petty village; 

 it was exported in bales and cargoes to the colonies ; it was translated 

 into all languages. Literally the book went the round of the planet, 

 and affected, to an extent infinitely beyond what any other book could 

 pretend to, the imagination of the human race. Of course the book 

 roused contradiction and opposition in America, and it was by way of 

 answering such hostile criticism, and of proving the accuracy of her 

 representations, that in 1853 she published her ' Key to Uncle Tom's 

 Cabin, presenting the original facts and documents upon which the 

 story is founded.' In April 1853, Mrs. Stowe, accompanied by her 

 husband, her brother the Rev. Charles Beecher, and several other 

 friends, paid her first visit to Britain. She was received everywhere 

 with enthusiasm ; and, after travelling through England, Scotland, 

 and parts of the Continent, she returned to America in September. 

 Her impressions in the course of her journey were given to the world 

 in her ' Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands,' published in 2 vol*. in 

 1854. To this work has succeeded ' Dred, a Tale of the Great Dismal 

 Swamp,' published, also in 2 vols., in 1856. Neither work has come 

 up in reputation to its great predecessor ; but both have been circu- 

 lated in thousands, together with reprints of those earlier writings of 

 Mrs. Stowe to which we have alluded above. Among them, besides 

 the ones mentioned, are, ' The Coral Ring,' ' Temperance Tales,' 

 ' Make to Yourselves Friends,' &c. Since the composition of ' Dred/ 

 Mrs. Stowe has made a second visit to Europe, from which she has 

 but recently (May 1857) returned to America. 



STOWELL, WILLIAM SCOTT, BARON, was the elder brother 

 of Lord Chancellor Eldon, and the eldest son of Mr. William Scott, 

 coalfitter, of Newcastle, by his second wife, Jane, daughter of Mr. 

 Henry Atkinson, who was of the same profession. [ELDON, EARL OF] 

 He was born on the 17th of October, 1745 (O.S.) at Heworth, a village 

 on the Tyiie, about three miles below Newcastle, and iu the county of 

 Durham, to which his mother had been sent a few days before, in the 

 apprehension excited by the, advance of the Scotch rebel army after 

 the battle of Prestonpans. Egress in any common way being imprac- 

 ticable, they had been obliged, it is related, to hoist her in a sort of 

 basket over the town wall, which then ran along the quay, separating 

 Mr. Scott's house in Love Lane from the river, where a boat was in 

 readiness to receive her. At Heworth she was safely delivered of twins; 

 William, and a daughter, who was named Barbara and died in infancy. 



William was educated with his two younger brothers, Henry and 

 John, at the Royal Grammar-school of Newcastle, under the Reverend 

 Hugh Moises. Moises is said to have been principally instrumental in 

 getting both William and John sent to college. William entered the 

 University of Oxford in February 1761, standing for and obtaining a 

 scholarship at Corpus Christi College,, for which the circumstance 

 of his having been born in the county of Durham rendered him 

 eligible. Having taken his Bachelor's degree on the 20th of No- 

 vember 1764, he was on the 13th of the following month elected 

 a Probationary Fellow of University College ; and it is remarkable 

 that for hia eligibility on this occasion likewise he was again in- 



