Stopford, James (c.1697–1759), Church of Ireland bishop of Cloyne, was born in London, son of Joseph Stopford (d. a.25 October 1707), a lieutenant colonel in Colonel Richard Gorges's regiment of foot, and his wife, Elizabeth Stopford (née Boate), widow of Richard Brooking. The bishop belonged to a junior line of a family of Cromwellian foundation in Ireland. His father was the youngest son of James Stopford (d. 18 March 1685) of Saltersford, Cheshire, who came to Ireland as a captain in the parliamentary army. He graduated from soldiering to administration under the Commonwealth, and was said to have acquired vast wealth by the 1660s. His seat was at New Hall, Co. Meath. With his first wife, Ellinor (d. 27 February 1660), daughter of John Morewood of the Oaks, Yorkshire, he had a daughter and three sons, William (d. 22 May 1683), James, and Joseph, father of Bishop Stopford. A second marriage, to Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Forth, produced two daughters. The younger daughter, Dorothy, took as her second husband Colonel Richard Gorges of Kilbrew, Co. Meath; they were friends of Swift (qv) and their deaths within days of each other in April 1728 gave rise to his ‘Elegy on Dicky and Dolly’.
After the death of William, his son James Stopford (b. 1668, d. 9 July 1721) succeeded his grandfather. He was MP for Wexford borough, 1703–13, and Co. Wexford, 1713–14 and 1715–21. He married Frances (d. 22 May 1721), only daughter of Roger Jones and granddaughter and heir of Thomas Jones, of Courtown, Co. Wexford, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, James Stopford (c.1700–1770), of Courtown and Tara Hill, Co. Meath, became MP for Co. Wexford in succession to his father, 1721–27, and was MP for Fethard from 1727 to 1758, when he was created Baron Courtown; in 1762 he became first earl of Courtown. His sister Anne (c.1700–1784) married 16 December 1727 her cousin James, the future bishop. They had, with other children, three sons, William, James, and Joseph, who later held livings in the diocese of Cloyne. Bishop Stopford died on 24 August 1759 and his widow on 5 May 1784. There are papers relating to the Stopford family in TCD and the NLI.
James Stopford attended school in Wexford and entered TCD in 1710, where he became a scholar in 1715, taking his BA in 1715 and MA in 1718. He was a fellow of the college from 1717 to 1727, during which period he became a close friend of Jonathan Swift, who admired his modesty and his classical learning. Swift introduced him to important friends such as Lord Carteret (qv) and Alexander Pope, though his high expectations of his protégé were not fully realised. Stopford made the grand tour in 1724 on his own account, and in 1725–6 as companion to a rich young man called William Graham. In 1727 he married and was appointed vicar of Finglas, Co. Dublin. He held this living until his death and was later provost of Tuam, 1730–53, archdeacon of Killaloe, 1736–53 and dean of Kilmacduagh, 1748–53. In 1753 he was appointed bishop of Cloyne.