Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stopford, Joshua
STOPFORD, JOSHUA (1636–1675), divine, born in Lancashire in 1636, entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1654, and thence migrated in 1656 to Magdalen College, where he was one of the eight clerks on the foundation. He graduated B.A. on 23 Feb. 1657–8 and M.A. and B.D. in 1670. In 1650 he was appointed morning lecturer at the Old Church, Manchester, and in 1659 he took an active part in encouraging the insurrection in Cheshire under Sir George Booth. On 12 Sept. 1660 he was ordained deacon and priest by William Piers [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells; and on 7 Nov. 1660 he was collated by Archbishop Frewen to the prebend of Dunnington in the church of York. In 1663 he was presented to the vicarage of Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland; on 7 Oct. the same year he was instituted to the rectory of All Saints, York, on the presentation of the king; and on 12 Sept. 1667 he was collated by Archbishop Sterne to the vicarage of St. Martin, Coney Street, York. He died at York on 3 Nov. 1675.
His works are: 1. ‘The Ways and Method of Rome’s Advancement; or, Whereby the Pope and his Agents have endeavoured to propagate their Doctrines,’ York, 1672, 8vo. 2. ‘Pagano-Papismus; or an exact Parallel between Rome-Pagan and Rome-Christian, in their Doctrines and Ceremonies,’ London, 1675, 8vo. The copy in the British Museum has copious manuscript notes; the book was re-edited in 1844 (London, 12mo).
[Bloxam’s Magd. Coll. Reg. ii. 70; Davies’s York Press, p. 84; Drake’s Eboracum, pp. 294, 327; Earwaker’s East Cheshire, i. 228; Foster’s Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Kennett’s Register, p. 309; Newcome’s Autobiogr. and Diary, passim; Palatine Notebook, i. 155; Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1053, and Fasti, ii. 199.]