Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stopford, James
STOPFORD, JAMES (d. 1759), bishop of Cloyne, born in London, was the son of Joseph Stopford, a captain in the English army. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1710, became a scholar in 1713, graduated B.A. in 1715, was elected a fellow on 25 March 1717, and proceeded M.A. in the following year. He was an intimate friend of Swift, who materially aided his promotion in the church, appointed him one of his executors, and bequeathed him a portrait of Charles I by Vandyck, which Stopford had formerly given him.
In 1727 Stopford resigned his fellowship on being appointed vicar of Finglas, near Dublin, by Lord Carteret, the lord-lieutenant. On 11 July 1730 he was installed provost of Tuam, on 10 July 1736 he was collated archdeacon of Killaloe, and on 8 Jan. 1748 he was instituted dean of Kilmacduagh. He held these preferments until 1753, when, in pursuance of letters patent dated 28 Feb., he was appointed bishop of Cloyne. He died on 23 Aug. 1759, and was buried at St. Anne's, Dublin, where a tablet was erected to his memory on the outside of the south wall of the church. He married, on 16 Dec. 1727, Anne, second daughter of James Stopford of Tara Hill in Meath, and sister of James Stopford, first earl of Courtown. By her he had three sons—William, James, and Joseph—besides other children.
[Brady's Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, 1864, iii. 119–20; Lodge's Irish Peerage, ed. Archdall, 1789, iii. 121; Swift’s Works, ed. Scott 1824, index; Cat. of Dublin Graduates, p. 545; Cotton’s Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, i. 273, 420, iv. 25, 204.]