the system of tubular-plate railway bridges he was awarded by the council of the French Exhibition of 1855 their great gold medal of honour.
On 30 July 1847 Stephenson was returned to parliament as member for Whitby, which town he represented till his death, being re-elected on 10 July 1852, 27 March 1857, and 29 April 1859. He was a conservative and protectionist. He rarely spoke except on engineering matters; he was an opponent in the house of the Suez Canal scheme. In 1830 he became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and eventually became president, occupying the chair during 1856 and 1857. He received numerous distinctions—the Order of Leopold from the King of the Belgians in 1841, the grand cross of St. Olaff of Norway in 1848, he was elected F.R.S. on 7 June 1849, and on 24 June 1857 he was created a D.C.L. of Oxford University. He married, on 17 June 1829, Frances, daughter of John Sanderson of London. She died without issue at Hampstead on 4 Oct. 1842, aged thirty-nine (Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 553). His health had long been very unsatisfactory, and early in 1859 he was advised to stop all work and take a yachting cruise (the only recreation he indulged in). Eventually, in September 1859, he left for Norway; but after a temporary rally he rapidly grew worse, and was brought back in great haste to die at his own home, No. 34 Gloucester Square on 12 Oct. 1859. He was buried on 22 Oct. in Westminster Abbey, by the side of Telford, amid signs of general mourning throughout the engineering world.
Apart from his numerous reports on professional matters, Stephenson undertook little literary work, his only important work being the article on ‘Iron Bridges’ he wrote for the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ (8th ed.).
There are three portraits at the Institution of Civil Engineers—one by H. Phillips, one by J. Lucas, and a third, with his father, also by Lucas. A portrait by George Richmond (1849) was engraved for Mr. Jeaffreson's ‘Life.’ There is also a bronze statue by Marochetti, and a memorial brass in Westminster Abbey.
[Smiles's Life of George and Robert Stephenson; Obituary Notices in Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. xix. 176; The Life of Robert Stephenson, F.R.S., by J. C. Jeaffreson, with descriptive chapters on his professional works by William Pole, F.R.S., London, 1864, 2 vols., with two portraits.]
STEPHENSON, SAMUEL MARTIN, M.D. (1742–1833), Irish presbyterian divine and physician, youngest son of James Stephenson, by his wife Margaret (Martin), was born in 1742 at Straidballymorris, parish of Templepatrick, co. Antrim. From the school of John Rankin, presbyterian minister at Antrim, he went to Glasgow University, where he was a pupil of William Leechman [q. v.] After being licensed in 1767 by Templepatrick presbytery he became master in the diocesan school at Monaghan, where for two years he lodged with Braddock, an apothecary. This gave him a taste for medicine, which he studied in Dublin and in Edinburgh (1773–6). Meanwhile he received a call in August 1773 from the congregation of Greyabbey, co. Down. His trial sermon, preached on 19 April 1774, was of doubtful orthodoxy, and he declined to subscribe the Westminster confession of faith. By a majority of one he was admitted on 31 May to ordination, and ordained by Bangor presbytery on 21 June (the date, 20 June, in report to synod, is wrong) 1774, reading a written declaration of his faith. On 12 June 1776 he graduated M.D. at Edinburgh, and practised gratuitously at Greyabbey, where his salary was 50l. besides regium donum. On 1 Aug. 1785 he resigned his charge, and was succeeded by James Porter [q. v.] Settling as a physician in Belfast, he obtained great distinction in his profession, revolutionising the treatment of fever cases. He founded, in conjunction with James McDonnell, M.D., the dispensary in 1792 and the fever hospital in 1797. He was also a zealous promoter of the (now Royal) Academical Institution which was opened 1 Feb. 1814. In recognition of his high character for public spirit and private charity, the general synod of Ulster in 1818 replaced his name on the ministerial roll, though he had exercised no clerical duties for over thirty years. In 1821 he resigned his public appointments in favour of his son, Robert Stephenson, M.D. (d. 1869). Latterly he amused himself with farming. He died on 13 Jan. 1833. He married Mary, daughter of James Armstrong, presbyterian minister of Portaferry, co. Down, and had a numerous family.#
He published: 1. ‘The Declaration of Faith,’ Belfast, 1774, 8vo; 2 edits. same year; reprinted, with title ‘Of Articles of Faith,’ [1822?], 8vo. 2. ‘A Review of the Reasons … and … Remarks upon a late Declaration of Faith,’ Belfast, 1775, 8vo. 3. ‘De Typho,’ Edinburgh, 1776, 8vo (graduation thesis). 4. ‘On the Linen and Hempen Manufactures of … Ulster,’ Belfast, 1808, 4to. 5. ‘An Historical Essay on the Parish … of Templepatrick,’ Belfast, 1825, 8vo. 6. ‘An Historical Essay on the Parish …
