The children of Robert Stephenson, 1st, William, James, Elizabeth and Nancy, will be, hereafter, referred to as the Four who came to America, and their brother Robert as Robert, 2nd. Robert Stephenson, 1st, was living in Ireland during the year 1772. Robert Stephenson, 2nd, who was afterwards known as "Old Robert" of Wylam, and his father, Robert, 1st, went to Northumberland County, England. This Robert Stephenson, 2nd, became the father of George Stephenson, the celebrated engineer of railroad fame. Robert Stephenson, 2nd, was first found by historians in 1774 working in a coal mine at Wylam, eight miles west of Newcastle-on-the-Tyne. History says his father was a Scotchman, and that he came across the border in the capacity of a hireling to a gentleman. But history tells very little about him. It does not even give his name. Nor does history tell the nativity of Robert Stephenson, 2nd, the father of George, who afterwards became famous. It is assumed by some that Robert, 1st, son of Henry Stephenson, the shepherd, near Jedburgh, Scotland, went direct from Scotland to England, and became the father of George Stephenson, the railroad promoter. This assumption is erroneous. As has been previously stated, Robert Stephenson, 2nd, was born of Scotch parents in Antrim County, Ireland, about the year 1752. A close observance of his history will show that he could not have been Robert Stephenson, 1st, the oldest son of Henry Stephenson, the shepherd. We learn from history that when Robert Stephenson, 2nd, went to England, he was a young man. He went to Wylam about the year 1773. He married Miss Mabel Carr in the early part of 1778. He and his wife were young people when they married. They seemed to have been about the same age. He and his wife reared a family of six children. James, the oldest, was born March, 1779, and George, the engineer, in June, 1781. The assumption that Robert, 1st, the oldest son of Henry Stephenson, the shepherd, was the father of George, the engineer, would make him (Robert, 1st) between forty-four and forty-five years of age at the time of Miss Carr's marriage, in 1778. The assumption is not reasonable. Again history relates that the father of Robert, 2nd, was a Scotchman and came into England in the employ of a gentleman. Henry Stephenson, the shepherd, at the time the father of Robert Stephenson went across the border into England as an employe to a gentleman, would have been not less than seventy-five years old.
It could not, in reason, have been Henry, the shepherd, who crossed the border at his then advanced age. Nor is it supposable that he would have left his other children in Scotland, and have followed Robert, the eldest, to England. The father of Robert, 2nd, who crossed the border was Robert Stephenson, 1st, the son of Henry, the shepherd, when he was fifty years old. The story as told by the Stephensons in South Carolina, in regard to their ancestors losing their property in Ballymoney corroborates the story as told by the niece of George Stephenson in England, in giving the reason why her great-grandfather, Robert Stephenson, 1st, ⟨with the means to use⟩ in making his journey to England in search of work. The two stories told by parties of the same name and religion, who never even heard of each other, tend to establish the theory that the families who went from Ballymoney to South Carolina, and to England are one and the same family, centering in one common parent, Henry Stephenson, the shepherd, of Scotland. The history as related by Miss Stephenson, the daughter of John Stephenson, who was the fourth son of Robert Stephenson, 2nd, is found on page 104 of Samuel Smiles' History of George Stephenson, and his son, Robert, two engineers. It is as follows: "A tradition exists in the family that Robert Stephenson's father came across the border on the loss of considerable property. Miss Stephenson, the daughter of Robert’s third son, John, has stated that suit was commenced for the recovery of the property, but was dropped for want of the requisite means to prosecute it." The foregoing data have been obtained after much research.
There are some disconnected links in the chain of history here given. But it is believed to be correct as given. Should any one be able to suggest an error, I will gladly make the correction. My grandfather, Hugh W. Stephenson, was eight years old when the family sailed for America. He died in Alabama, 1841, when I was eighteen years old. We have no further account of Robert Stephenson, 1st.
Robert Stephenson, 2d, married to Miss Mabel Carr in the early part of 1778, at Wylam. They reared four sons and two daughters. James, the oldest, was born in March, 1779; the second, George, the engineer, was born in June, 1781; Ellen, Robert, John and Ann, born in 1792, were the other children. They all married. George was married three times, but reared only one child to maturity; Robert, who was as fine an engineer as his father. He was a well educated man, a member of Parliament, and a man of much wealth. He married, but died in 1859, childless. There is not a single descendant of George Stephenson now living. The only living grandchild of Robert, 2d, is George Robert Stephenson, of Cheltenham, England. He is a son of Robert, the third son of old Robert, 2d, of Wylam. Ann, the youngest child, married John Nixon and reared a family in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Her descendants are numerous.
The reason that historians were thrown off the trail of the ancestors of George Stephenson is due to the fact that they followed the clew, that Robert Stephenson, the father of the railroad promoter, went direct from Scotland to England, which was not the fact. Robert Stephenson, 2d, was born in North Ireland, in 1752. My first information as to the time of his birth was that he was born in 1748. But from information recently obtained, I find it was his sister, Elizabeth, who was born in 1748, and Robert was born in 1752. He was born of Scottish parents. George Robert Stephenson, of Cheltenham, England, now (1905) over 86 years old, is very conservative and cautious. In a letter to me, dated February, 1905, referring to my statement of the early history of the Stephensons, as above given, he says, "Your own version of the story, namely, that Robert had brothers and sisters, who emigrated to South Carolina, is quite feasible. Our own account is that Robert had brothers and, perhaps, sisters; and it is certainly odd that nothing should be known about them; but if all, or most, of them went to the States, such disappearance is easily accounted for." If historians had known that the brothers and sisters of Robert Stephenson, 2d, had gone to North America, they might casily have obtained all the data they desired.
Now (1905), of the Four who came to America, there are only a very few grandchildren living. Those living are Mrs. Hephzibah, the relict of Dr. William J. Stephenson, Rossville, South Carolina. She is the daughter of James Furgeson and his wife, Mary Stephenson. She is a very amiable Christian lady, living on her farm in contentment with her son, William Stephenson. Mrs. Ruth B. Cowan, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, is the relict of William Cowan. She is the daughter of John Brady, and the granddaughter of Alex Brady and his wife, Elizabeth Stephenson, one of the Four. Mrs. Jane Agnes Campbell, Richburg, South Carolina, is the widow of James Campbell, and daughter of John Westbrook and his wife, Catharine Stephenson, and granddaughter of William Stephenson, called "Stinson," one of the Four. She lives happily on a farm with her daughter and son-in, law, Mary Frances and W. C. Garrison. Burdette Furgeson, son of John Furgeson and his wife, Nancy Stephenson, and grandson of William Stephenson, one of the Four, lives with Stephen Furgeson on a farm near Richburg, South Carolina.
William Stephenson was commonly called "Stinson," the Scottish vernacular for Stephenson. He was my great-grandfather; that is, he was the father of my grandfather, Hugh W. Stephenson. He was the oldest son of Robert Stephenson, 1st, a Scotchman, who reared a family in County Antrim, Ireland. He was born in 1744; was twice married. He first married Miss R. Green Beattie, in 1764. Of this union there were born seven children, five sons and two daughters: Hugh W. Stephenson, born January 25, 1765, in Ireland, was the oldest. Then John, Robert, James, William, Elizabeth and Nancy were born. Elizabeth and Nancy were twins, born in 1787, in South Carolina. His wife died the day the twins were born.
In 1789 he, William Stephenson, married Miss Elizabeth Wylie. Of this union there were born four children, two sons and two daughters. Samuel, who was born in 1790, was the oldest of the children of the second marriage. Then were born Mary, in 1792; Daniel Green, in 1794, and Catharine, in 1796.
William Stephenson, commonly called "Stinson," was a man of strong convictions and great decision of character. He joined the army as a whig soldier in the Revolutionary War and made a brave and gallant warrior. His life was a very tempestuous one. Before he left Ireland he had trouble with the Catholics. The Presbyterians and Catholics were deadly enemies; so much so that their conflicts were sometimes attended by death. He came to America, where he hoped to enjoy religious liberty. But he had only fairly entered into its enjoyment when the tocsin of the war of the Revolution was sounded. Previous to this time he had moved from Chester County to York, and settled in the vicinity of King's Mountain.