lighthouse, which exceeds both the Eddystone and Bell Rock lighthouses in size, and in the difficulties which attended its construction. Mr. David Stevenson is well known as a river and harbour engineer; and Mr. Thomas Stevenson as the author of a standard work on lighthouse illumination, and the inventor of some improvements in apparatus for that purpose.—R.
STEVENSON, William, an able English writer, was born about 1772. He was appointed to a post in the record office, and subsequently to one in the treasury, both of which he filled with distinction. His chief literary works are "An Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce;" "A General view of the Agriculture of the County of Surrey;" an article "On Chivalry" in Brewster's Encyclopedia; and a "Life of Caxton," published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Stevenson died in 1829.—F.
STEVENSON, William, an English antiquary, native of East Retford, Nottinghamshire, and son of the rector of Tresswell in that county. He was for thirty-five years proprietor of the Norfolk Chronicle, and is principally known as the editor of Bentham's History of Ely Cathedral, and as contributing to Nichols' Literary Anecdotes. He died in 1821.—F.
STEVINUS, Simon (whose vernacular name appears to have been Steven or Stevin), a distinguished Flemish engineer and mathematician, was born at Bruges in 1548, and died at the Hague in 1620. He began life as bookkeeper to a merchant at Antwerp; was afterwards a surveyor of taxes in Bruges; travelled through various parts of Europe; and was at last appointed quartermaster-general of the Dutch army, and chief director of engineering works in Holland. He is justly regarded as one of the founders in modern times of the sciences of arithmetic, algebra, and mechanics. In a treatise on arithmetic, published in 1585, he was the first to set forth systematically the use of decimal fractions. In 1586 appeared his treatise on the "Principles of Statics " (Beghinselen der Weegkonst), containing the discovery of the law of the equilibrium of three inclined forces. In the same year appeared his "Principles of Hydrostatics" (De Beghinselen des Waterwichts), containing his discovery of the law of the proportionality of the pressure of a liquid to its depth. He made some important improvements in the theory of equations. His works appeared at Leyden, where they were also published in a collected form in 1605-8.—W. J. M. R.
STEWART Family, the, in the main line occupied the throne of Scotland for upwards of three hundred, and that of Great Britain for more than one hundred years, and intermarried with the highest blood in Europe, sending off shoots in all directions, but has now fallen into a state of such utter decay that its direct representative cannot be ascertained. This famous but ill-fated house sprang from a Norman named Alan, contemporary with William the Conqueror, who obtained from that monarch the barony of Oswestry in Shropshire. Of the three sons of this gentleman, William, the eldest, became the ancestor of the earls of Arundel, whose titles and estates were ultimately carried by an heiress into the Howard family. Walter and Simon migrated into Scotland and became—the former, the progenitor of the Stewarts; the latter, of the Boyds. Walter obtained from David I., along with the high office of steward, the lands of Paisley, Renfrew, Pollock, and Cathcart. In 1170 he founded the abbey of Paisley, for monks of the Cluniac order, who came from Wenlock abbey in Shropshire, a religious house fostered and protected by his elder brother. He died in 1177, and was buried at Paisley. His grandson, who bore the same name, received from Alexander II. the additional office of justiciar of Scotland. Alexander, successor to this second Walter, commanded the Scottish army at the important battle of Largs in 1263, and was killed while pressing upon the retreating Norwegians. James, the eldest son of Alexander, succeeded him in his dignities and principal estates. His second son. Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, was a celebrated warrior and patriot, and fought under Wallace at the battle of Falkirk in 1298, where he was killed. He was the ancestor by his eldest son, Alexander, of the Stewarts, earls of Angus; by a second, Alan, of the earls and dukes of Lennox; by a third, Walter, of the earls of Galloway; by a fourth, James, of the earls of Athol, Buchan, and Traquair, and the Lords Lorn and Innermeath, most of whom figured conspicuously in the subsequent history of Scotland.
James, the High Steward, who succeeded his father Alexander in 1283, was a nobleman of great influence in the stormy times that followed the death of Alexander III. He was one of the six magnates chosen to act as regents of the kingdom, and in the contest for the crown he zealously supported the claims of Bruce. He fought bravely under Wallace for the independence of Scotland; and though compelled once and again to make his submission to Edward I., he was ever ready to take up arms for his country when opportunity offered. He was a faithful friend of King Robert Bruce, and died in his service in 1309.—His son and heir, Walter, at the age of twenty-one, commanded one of the divisions of the Scottish army at the battle of Bannockburn. On the liberation, soon after, of Bruce's wife and daughter from their protracted captivity in England, the young Steward was sent to receive them on the borders, and conduct them to the court. It is probable that on this occasion an attachment sprung up between Walter and the Princess Marjory, as they were married in the course of the following year (1315). This union ultimately led to the elevation of the Stewart family to the throne, and from it sprung a race of sovereigns under whom Scotland and England were at length happily united. Walter stood high in the esteem and confidence of his illustrious father-in-law, and along with Douglas was intrusted with the entire management of the kingdom, during Bruce's absence in Ireland. In 1319 he successfully defended the important town of Berwick, against a powerful English army led by the king in person. Three years later, in company with Douglas and Randolph, he surprised and defeated King Edward II. at Biland abbey in Yorkshire. The English monarch with the utmost difficulty made his escape to York, closely pursued by the Steward, who chivalrously displayed his banner before the town for a whole day, waiting for the enemy to come forth to renew the combat. This heroic youth died in 1326, at the early age of thirty-three. His gallant behaviour at the battle of Bannockburn, and in many subsequent conflicts, had gained him a high reputation among the Scottish warriors of that period. Barbour, who has feelingly commemorated his many virtues, and great promise of renown, states that his untimely death caused deep and universal lamentation.—Robert, the son of the Steward by Marjory Bruce, succeeded to the crown on the death of his nephew, David II., in 1371.—(See Robert II.) The history of the Stewart family since their accession to the throne has been singularly unfortunate. Robert III., a virtuous but weak sovereign, died of grief for the death of one of his sons, and the captivity of the other. James I., the flower of the family, was barbarously murdered.—James II. was killed in his twenty-ninth year, by the bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh castle.—James III. fell in battle against his nobles, headed by his own son.—James IV. was slain at Flodden.—James V. died of a broken heart.—His daughter, the beautiful but ill-fated Mary, after enduring a captivity of nineteen years, perished on the scaffold, as did her grandson, Charles I.—His son, James VII., was driven forth from his kingdom a fugitive, and died in exile. The male line of the family terminated on the death of his grandson, Henry, younger son of the Chevalier St. George, who was born at Rome in March, 1725. At an early age he was destined for the church, but the pope granted him a dispensation by which he was enabled to hold ecclesiastical preferments without taking orders. In 1745 while his elder brother. Prince Charles, was in Scotland making a last effort to regain the throne of his fathers, Henry repaired to France, with the view of joining him, at the head of some troops which were assembled at Dunkirk. But the news of the fatal battle of Culloden prevented their embarkation, and Henry returning to Rome, soon after took holy orders. In 1747 Pope Benedict XIV. raised him to the purple, with the title of Cardinal York; and he was subsequently created chancellor of St. Peter's and bishop of Frescati. On the death of Prince Charles in 1788, the cardinal caused medals to be struck, bearing his own portrait, with the inscription, Henricus Nonus, Angliæ Rex; and on the obverse. Gratiá Dei, von vuluntate hominum. This amiable but unfortunate scion of royalty was despoiled of his property, and reduced to a state of destitution by the French in 1798. His wants were generously relieved by George III., who bestowed on him a pension of £4000 a year. The cardinal died in 1807.
There does not now exist a lineal male representative of any of the crowned heads of this family, though the clan is still numerous in Scotland.
A very distinguished branch of the Stewart family became lords of Aubigny in France, and attained to the highest honours in that kingdom. The founder of this branch was Sir John Stewart of Darnley, who, along with the earls of Buchan and
