at a later period, namely during the latter half of 1839, was asserted by more than one Asiatic witness, including his servant Rujub Beg; and Arthur Conolly [q. v.], who before he left Cabul credited the story, believed it up to the last. Stoddart himself, however, merely wrote that his life was spared and that he was released from prison, on 8 July 1839, on his promising to serve the ameer. ‘I argued hard and long with them, till they brought the executioner with spade and pick to dig the grave near the prison. I told them that the ameer must know it was a false pretence, my service to him; but it ended in my release’ (Letter to his family on 31 July 1839). There is nothing to show that ‘service’ included apostasy.
Towards the end of 1839 Stoddart was again placed in more rigorous confinement, from which he was not wholly released till 8 Oct. 1840. What happened during the twelvemonth from September 1839 to September 1840 is uncertain; but in January 1841 he wrote, ‘Thank God I have fought my way from imprisonment and insult to the highest favour with the ameer.’ On 22 Feb. he became the guest of Abdul Samut Khan, a Persian adventurer in the ameer's service. At this time the ameer was anxious to enter into a treaty with the British government; and at his request Stoddart informed Lord Palmerston of his master's wish to become the ally of England. In the spring of 1841 information reached Russia that, in deference to repeated requests from the Russian authorities, the ameer had given Stoddart leave to proceed to Orenburg, but that he refused to profit by the intercession of a foreign power. Letters he wrote in July intimated his belief that he would shortly be allowed to leave by the way he came. He had also sent messengers to Arthur Conolly, then in Khokand, inviting him in the ameer's name to return via Bokhara; but he hoped to leave before Conolly's arrival (Edinburgh Review, 1845). In August he wrote expressing entire confidence in the ameer's friendliness towards England and himself, and hoped shortly to be allowed to depart with honours (ib.) On 8 Sept. 1841 the Russian envoy, Colonel Buteneff, who had reached Bokhara three weeks before, met Stoddart, who ten days later was allowed to remove to the house occupied by the Russian mission. Buteneff described Stoddart as ‘a very clever, well-educated, and agreeable man.’ On Conolly's arrival in Bokhara (9 Nov.) Stoddart resided with him at Abdul Samut's house.
On 10 Dec. Stoddart received a despatch from Lord Palmerston, and the ameer is said to have been annoyed at not getting a letter from the queen. More probably his dislike of the English was revived by the news of the rising at Cabul and the murder of Alexander Burnes (2 Nov. 1842). On 20 Dec. Stoddart and Conolly were both imprisoned in the house of Abdul Samut. Writing on 28 March, Conolly said: ‘Stoddart is such a friend as a man would desire to have in adversity.’ A few letters from Stoddart have been preserved. On 28 Feb. 1842 he wrote to his sister: ‘Don't believe all you hear or may hear.’ On 28 May he wrote: ‘The Russian mission left this toward the end of April. I feel convinced that Colonel Buteneff's kind desire to procure our release failed solely in consequence of the unreasonableness of the ameer.’ On 17 June 1842 Stoddart and Conolly were taken to a public square in the city and beheaded (so Vámbéry, and Kaye, ii. 139; Ferrier gives 24 June as the date). According to a statement made to Dr. Wolff, Stoddart, before he was killed, said, ‘Tell the ameer I die a disbeliever in Muhammad; that I am a Christian, and a Christian I die.’ A miniature portrait of Stoddart by an unknown artist was bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery, London, by Stoddart's sister, Miss Frances Agnes Stoddart.
[Blue Book, Correspondence relating to Persia and Afghanistan, 1839; The Bokara Victims, by Captain Strover; Records in the Secret and Political Department at the India Office; private information; see art. Conolly, Arthur.]
STODDART, Sir JOHN (1773–1856), journalist, eldest son of John Stoddart, lieutenant in the royal navy, was born at Salisbury on 6 Feb. 1773. His only sister, Sarah, married, on 1 May 1808, William Hazlitt [q. v.] He was educated at Salisbury grammar school, and matriculated on 25 Oct. 1790 from Christ Church, Oxford, where he was elected a student in 1791, and graduated B.A. in 1794, B.C.L. in 1798, and D.C.L. in 1801. He was admitted a member of the College of Advocates in 1801, and from 1803 to 1807 he was the king's and the admiralty advocate at Malta. Returning to England, he practised in Doctors' Commons, and from 1812 to 1816 was a leader-writer on the ‘Times.’ In February 1817 he had a difference with the ‘Times,’ and started a rival daily, entitled ‘The New Times,’ which was soon amalgamated with the ‘Day.’ For a short time it appeared as the ‘Day and New Times,’ but dropped the first half of the title in 1818, and survived as the ‘New Times’ until about 1828. During the period
