STOW, John (1525-1605), historian and antiquary, was the son of Thomas Stow, a tailor, and was born in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill, in 1525. His parents do not appear to have been rich, for his father’s whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow himself in his youth went every morning to fetch the milk for the family from a farm belonging to the nunnery of Minories. He learned the trade of his father, but possibly did not practise it much after he grew up to manhood. In 1549 he “kept house” near the well within Aldgate, but afterwards he removed to Lime Street ward, where he resided till his death. His first publication was A Summary of Englische Chronicles in 1561, which was frequently reprinted, with slight variations, during his lifetime. Of the first edition a copy was said to have been at one time in the Grenville library. In the British (Museum there are at present copies of the editions of 1567, 1573, 1587, 1590, 1598, and 1604. Stow having in his dedication of 1567 referred to the rival publication of Richard Grafton in contemptuous terms, the dispute between them became extremely embittered. Stow’s antiquarian tastes brought him under ecclesiastical suspicion as a person “with many dangerous and superstitious books in his possession,” and in 1568 Grindal, bishop of London, caused his study to be searched. An inventory was taken of certain books he possessed “in defence of Papistry, but he was apparently able to satisfy his interrogators of the soundness of his Protestantism. A second attempt to incriminate him in 1570 was also without result. In 1580 Stow published his Annales, or a Generale Chronicle of England from Brute until the present yeare of Christ 1580; it was reprinted in 1592, 1601, and 1605, ...

STOWELL, William Scott, Baron (1745-1836), one of the ablest and most accomplished of English judges, especially in international law, was born at Heworth, a village about four miles from Newcastle, on 17th October 1745. His father was a “coalfitter” (or tradesman engaged in the transport of coal); his mother was the daughter of a small tradesman, Atkinson by name; his younger brother John became the famous Lord Chancellor Eldon (q.v.). Scott was educated at the Newcastle grammar school under the able tuition of the Rev. Hugh Moises. In February 1761 he gained a Durham scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was immediately admitted as a student of the university. In 1764 he graduated as bachelor of arts, and became first a probationary fellow and then—as successor to William (afterwards the well-known Sir William) Jones—a tutor of University College. In 1767 he took his M.A. degree. In 1772 he graduated as bachelor of civil law. As Camden reader of ancient history he rivalled the reputation of Blackstone (1774). Although he had joined the Middle Temple in 1762 (June 24), it was not till 1776 that Scott devoted himself to a systematic study of law. In 1779 (June 23) he graduated as doctor of civil law, and, after the customary “year of silence,” commenced practice in the ecclesiastical courts. His professional success was rapid. In 1783 he became registrar of the Court of Faculties, and in 1788 judge of the Consistory Court and advocate-general, in that year too receiving the honour of knighthood; and in 1798 he was made judge of the High Court of Admiralty. Sir William Scott twice contested the representation of Oxford university,—in 1780 without success, but successfully in 1801. He also sat for Downton in 1790. Upon the coronation of George ...