I, J. C. Stephenson, the fifth son and the sixth child of William Watson Stephenson and his wife, Melinda Johnston, late residents of Lawrence County, Alabama, am about to write a short genealogical sketch of my ancestors; also of some of their descendants. This is made at Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the year 1905, after the writer had passed his eighty-third birthday. But it is not to be inferred that he was at the time of writing eighty-three years old.
To trace the genealogy of ancestors long since dead, without records, is an undertaking attended by many difficulties and some uncertainties. Young people do not care for nor appreciate the importance of genealogical history, but when the young have become old, they in vain seek such history. But the sources of information from which they might have obtained such history have been removed. Old people after death, tell no history, unless it be found on their tombstones. Would that I had made inquiry when I might have done so with much profit in knowledge.
As far back as we can trace our forefathers is to Henry Stephenson, a shepherd, who was born about the year 1698. The first part of the eighteenth century, he lived at Ricalton, in the parish of Oxnam, Roxburgh County, Scotland, six miles from the city of Jedburgh. There are some conflicting accounts as to the members of his family. But all accounts agree that he reared six children, and that Robert was the oldest, and Henry, born 1745, was the youngest son. One account is that Henry Stephenson reared six sons. Robert, the date of whose birth is not known, nor is there any record to be found by which the date of his birth can be ascertained, was the oldest. The names of the next four sons of Henry Stephenson are not known, nor the dates of their birth. But the sixth son of Henry Stephenson was born at Bloody Laws and baptized February 27, 1745, in Oxnam church. The family were Presbyterians. The son, Henry, remained in Scotland. He was a tailor. From circumstances it is indicated that Robert, Henry's oldest son, was born about the year 1723. Another account is that Henry Stephenson reared four sons and two daughters. This account makes Robert the oldest, and Henry the youngest of the sons of Henry Stephenson of Ricalton, Scotland. This account makes Robert the oldest son and gives the date of Henry's baptism the same as the other account. But it says there were two sisters and four brothers, and it gives their names and the dates of their births except in the case of Robert. This account makes Jane, the second child, born 1736. It is generally believed the first account is the correct one. There is also an account of a John Stephenson, who reared a family about the same time and in the same county. The names of John's children are common to the Stephenson name then and now. He most likely was a brother to Henry.
There has been much search made in Ayrshire and Roxburgh Counties, Scotland, the former home of the Stephensons, for the history of the ancestors of George Stephenson, since he became celebrated as the builder and promoter of the first locomotive engine and railroad in the world. But meager results have followed the investigations. Robert Stephenson, Henry's son, will be designated as Robert Stephenson, 1st, and his son, Robert, as Robert Stephenson, 2d.
One noted characteristic of the Stephenson family is a lack of clannishness. They are possessed of an independent pioneering spirit. They have no desire for fame. The young men leave home when they become of age and "paddle their own canoes," neglecting their old homes and associates in too great a degree. Robert Stephenson, 1st, seems to have been that sort of a man, and his children possessed of the same disposition. The same traits attach to their descendants in America to this day. When Robert, 1st, grew to manhood he disappeared. He is next found near Ballymoney, in County Antrim, in the north part of Ireland. This was about 1743. He was then a young married man, and living on a small farm.
Circumstances indicate that the second son of Henry Stephenson, the shepherd, was James Stephenson, and that he settled on a little farm, near to his older brother, Robert, 1st, in Ireland. He reared a family there. James' descendants went to America about the year 1785. They settled in Fairfield County, South Carolina, near where their kinspeople had settled in 1772. There was a descendant of this James Stephenson, by name Robert Stephenson, living near Winnsboro, South Carolina. He was a very tall and strong man. He was six feet and nine inches high, and known as the strongest man in the country. He was a quiet, peaceable man. He was known in his neighborhood as Long Robert Stevenson. He was an exemplary man, and a very highly esteemed citizen. One of his sons, Robert Milton Stevenson, is an Associate Reformed Presbyterian minister. He lives with his gentle, affectionate wife and interesting children at Clover, in the northern part of York County, South Carolina. He has in his charge three churches. He is a man of splendid Christian character, a good pastor, and a very excellent man in his calling, standing high in his church, as well as in his community and State.
The name Stephenson originally was spelled with "ph," but sometimes "v" is used and sometimes it is spelled "Stee'nson" and sometimes "Stinson." All these variations are used for and by different families of the same name and origin. The Stephensons on Rocky Creek, in Chester County, were known as Stinsons. Stinson is the Scottish vernacular for Stephenson. William Stephenson, my great-grandfather, and his brother, Capt. James Stephenson, were enrolled in the Colonial army from South Carolina as William and James Stinson. But the proper and original spelling was Stephenson.
Robert Stephenson, 1st, reared a family of five children, three sons and two daughters, at Ballymoney, Ireland. William, the oldest, my great-grandfather, was born about 1744; James was born 1746; Elizabeth was born 1748; Nancy was born 1750, and Robert was born 1752. The early history of this family is not well known by historians, prior to the year 1773. But after George Stephenson, the son of Robert, 2nd, invented the locomotive and promoted its usefulness, 1814 to 1830, the history was sought for, but without much result.
When the children of Robert Stephenson, 1st, grew up they joined the branch of the Presbyterian Church called "Covenanters." The Covenanters were those "who during the seventeenth century bound themselves to establish and maintain the Presbyterian doctrine 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.