Descendants of James Field Stanfield (b. 1749)

In this section you will find the descendants of the Irish writer James Field Stanfield (b. 1749 in Dublin, Ireland) and Mary Hoad. James was an Irishman, educated in France for Roman Catholic priesthood, but he did not take orders. He went to sea on a vessel engaged in the slave trade. After terrible experiences at sea and in Africa, he renounced the sea and joined a theatrical company, appearing in 1786 at York. He joined the ranks of the abolitionists, and there made new friends including Thomas Clarkson. In 1788 he published a book about his experience in the slave trade called "Observations on a Guinea Voyage in a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas Clarkson" and in the following year a vigourous poem "The Guinea Voyage". In 1807 both works were published as a single volume. In 1813 he published an "Essay on the Study and Composition of Biography". He was twice married. His first wife Mary Hoad (mother of son Clarkson Stanfield) of Cheltenham died in 1801

His son, Clarkson Stanfield, born in Sunderland, England, became a famous painter, known for his marine subjects. From 1808 to 1818 he was a sailor, first as a merchant sailor and then in 1812 was press-ganged into the Royal Navy. Disabled in a fall from the rigging, he took up painting, first as a scene painter (theatre) then with easel (from about the 1830s). He was married Mary Hutchinson & Rebecca Adcock. 9 sons, 3 daughters.

One of their sons, George Clarkson Stanfield, also became a painter, although never achieved the fame of his father. His son, Edward John Clarkson Stanfield, was my great-grandfather, father to my grandmother, Edythe Frances Stanfield.

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