Stockdale, John (d. 1813), printer and bookseller, may have been born in Dublin; nothing is known of his family background. He was a printer's apprentice to Henry Saunders (qv), and in 1772 was admitted free of the guild of St Luke by service, having completed a seven-year apprenticeship. In 1772 he set up business as a printer at 63 Abbey St., Dublin, where he remained until 1813. He served on the guild's council for printers from 1787, and was a warden in 1793. He was admitted on 27 April 1792 to the Dublin Society of United Irishmen, where he was a member until 1794, and printed 1,000 copies of the addresses and publications of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen in that year. In 1795 he rented a house at Britain St. at a cost of £33 a year. He printed The vicar of Wakefield and Essays, moral and literary, both by Oliver Goldsmith (qv), in 1793. In 1796 he printed a composite volume of Thomas Paine's works, and was accused of attempting ‘to destroy and overturn the lawful government . . . and to excite sedition and rebellion’ (Dickson et al., 147). He reputedly had volumes for sale at his dwelling in Abbey St.
From 1797 to 1798 he was the printer of the Press, a United Irish newspaper established by Arthur O'Connor (qv), of which Peter Finnerty (qv) was the proprietor. The Press expressed a vigorous criticism of the administration, and Thomas Moore (qv) and Thomas Addis Emmet (qv) contributed articles to it. In 1798 Stockdale took over the paper while O'Connor was in England. For printing a letter in the Press that reflected on the parliamentary conduct of Lord Glentworth, he was brought before the house of lords, fined £500, and imprisoned for six months in Kilmainham jail. While he was in prison, his house and property were invaded by the crown forces, who destroyed his type, presses, and other equipment. Sir William Alexander (qv), a barrister and police magistrate, removed the rest of Stockdale's printing machines, and the publication of the Press was suppressed temporarily.
Stockdale printed The speech of Henry Grattan, esq. on the subject of a legislative union with Great Britain (1800). In 1801 he was in danger of arrest, having printed The beauties of the press, with an appendix, containing the speech of Arthur O'Connor, on the catholic question, in the house of commons of Ireland, on Monday, May 4, 1795: also, his letter to Lord Castlereagh. No details are known of his marriage, but his son, John Stockdale, jr., went into partnership with him in 1802. In 1803 John printed Paddy's resource, a songbook of United Irish verse, including the tune, ‘Let millions be wise’, which echoed the United Irish aim of educating the people. Prior to the insurrection of 1803, Robert Emmet (qv) and William Dowdall (qv) were frequent visitors to Stockdale's home. Implicated in the insurrection, he was charged with printing Emmet's ‘Proclamation of the provisional government to the people of Ireland’, and was imprisoned for two years until the death in early 1806 of the prime minister, William Pitt. Stockdale's case did not go to trial, as evidence could not be produced of his knowledge of the offence. In 1807 a newspaper, the Evening Packet, which was begun by Stockdale, was taken over by Philip Whitfield Harvey (qv).
Stockdale had a country house, Greenmount, at Dundrum, Co. Dublin; he also owned a dwelling at Pagestown, near Dunboyne, Co. Meath. An independent-minded man, he died poor and neglected by his early associates on 11 June 1813 at his home on Abbey St., Dublin.