His family had for several centuries owned estates near Keswick, and a township to the west of Derwentwater once bore their name (Nicolson and Burn, History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, ii.

His dissertation bore the title ‘De iis quæ ad Sanitatem conservandam plurimum conferre videntur.’ He next studied for four years at the chief medical schools of the continent, including Paris, Vienna, Montpellier, Göttingen, and Leyden.

The case was reopened in the autumn, and was argued by Adair, Law, Chambre, and Christian for the plaintiffs, with Erskine, Warren, and Gibbs for the defendants, 13–16 May 1797; but the court unanimously refused the mandamus.

In 1798 Stanger appealed to the public in ‘A Justification of the Right of every well-educated Physician of fair character and mature age, residing within the Jurisdiction of the College of Physicians of London, to be admitted a fellow if competent.’ In this able pamphlet it was shown that Lord Mansfield had decided in 1767 that the college were bound under their charter to admit as fellows all duly qualified licentiates of whatever university.

Stanger, who possessed extensive attainments and great energy, also published ‘Remarks on the Necessity and Means of suppressing Contagious Fevers in the Metropolis,’ 1802, 12mo, and contributed a paper on ‘Coughs’ to the ‘Transactions of the Medical and Chirurgical Society.’ He died in London on 21 September 1834.