trine and polity, to the exclusion of Prelacy and Popery." They were sworn enemies of Catholicism. Their conflicts with the Catholics sometimes resulted in death.
During the year 1772 a great calamity happened to the Stephenson family in Ireland. The Stephensons now living in South Carolina have a tradition that Robert Stephenson, 1st, the Scotchman, had a younger brother, named James, living near him. James' daughter, Margaret, married a Mr. Beck. It is supposed Mr. Beck got into trouble with some Catholics. Robert, 1st, and James, in order to raise money to help Mr. Beck, mortgaged their land and thereby lost it. The families were thus financially broken up.
Prior to this financial misfortune, William, oldest son of Robert Stephenson, 1st, had married Miss R. Green Beattie; James was married, and Elizabeth had married Alexander Brady. During the year 1772 the Rev. William Martin, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Ballymoney, raised a company of colonists to go to North America. Mr. Martin was a Covenanter. William and James Stephenson, their families, and Alexander Brady and his wife, Elizabeth, joined the colony. About the time they were to sail Nancy, their sister, married William Anderson, and they, too, joined the emigrants. They sailed for North America in 1772. They settled on Rocky Creek, near the falls of the Catawba River, in Chester County, South Carolina. Mr. Anderson seems to have been a man of some means; the Stephensons were not then possessed of means.
