James Field Stanfield
{{Short description|Irish actor, abolitionist and author (1749–1824)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{for|other James Stansfields|James Stansfield (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = James Field Stanfield
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Martin Archer Shee - Portrait of James Field Stanfield TWMS SUN TWCMS H22101-001.jpg
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1749}}
| birth_place = Ireland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1824|5|10|1749|df=yes}}
| death_place = London, England
| nationality = Irish
| education =
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| occupation = {{Hlist| Actor | Activist |Author }}
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| notable_works =
| spouse = Mary Hoad (d.1801)
| partner =
| children = Clarkson Frederick Stanfield
| parents =
| relatives = George Clarkson Stanfield
Francis Stanfield (grandsons)
| awards =
}}
James Field Stanfield (1749 – 10 May 1824)England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 was an Irish actor, abolitionist and author. He was the father of the English painter Clarkson Stanfield.
Life
Stanfield was educated in France for the Roman Catholic priesthood. He did not take orders, but went to sea in a vessel engaged in the Atlantic slave trade. After a bad time at sea and a short period on shore in Africa, he returned to England, one out of three survivors of the voyage.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Stanfield, James Field|volume=53}}
Joining a theatrical company, Stanfield appeared in 1786 at York, where he also tried his hand at writing a comic opera. Joining the abolitionists, he found friends including Thomas Clarkson. For several years he held a principal situation in the Scarborough Theatre, and he afterwards had the direction of a small company whose circuit (about 1812) was in the north of Yorkshire and some of the adjoining counties.
On 13 June 1793 James Field Stanfield joined the Sea Captain Lodge, Sunderland, which later became Palatine Lodge No. 97.{{cite web |title=Palatine Lodge No. 97 official website |url=https://www.palatine97.org/pdf/release/Biog/No8.10%20J%20F%20Stanfield.pdf}}{{cite web |title=Palatine Lodge No. 97 official website |url=https://www.palatine97.org/pdf/biog_pdf/Watson%27s%20Stansfielda.pdf}}{{cite book |title=British Freemasonry, 1717-1813 by Robert Peters |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317275305 |edition=Volume 1: Institutions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jnRjDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Palatine+Lodge+No.+97%22+-wikipedia&pg=PT518}}
Works
In 1788 Stanfield published an account of his experience of the slave trade in Observations on a Guinea Voyage in a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas Clarkson, and in the following year a poem, The Guinea Voyage (London). In 1807 both works were published at Edinburgh in one volume. In 1813 he published an Essay on the Study and Composition of Biography (Sunderland), insisting on the need of "moral illustration".
Family
Stanfield was twice married, and was a father by his first wife, Mary Hoad (died 1801) of Cheltenham, of the English painter Clarkson Frederick Stanfield.
Notes
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External links
- {{Gutenberg author|id=44082}}
- {{FadedPage|id=Stanfield, James Field|name=James Field Stanfield|author=yes}}
Attribution
{{DNB|wstitle=Stanfield, James Field|volume=53}}
{{Clarkson Frederick Stanfield|state=collapsed}}
{{Portal bar|Ireland|Biography|Literature}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanfield, James Field}}
Category:Date of birth missing
Category:18th-century Irish male actors
Category:19th-century Irish male actors