of Greyabbey,’ Belfast, 1828, 8vo. The last two works are somewhat miscellaneous in character, but deserve credit as early examples of attention to Irish local antiquities.
[Bible Christian (Belfast), 1833, pp. 46 sq.; Irish Unitarian Mag. 1847, pp. 288 sq.; Reid's Hist. of Presbyterian Church in Ireland (Killen), 1867, iii. 337 sq.; Killen's Hist. of Congregational Presbyterian Church in Ireland, 1880, pp. 157, 215; Benn's Hist. of Belfast, 1880, ii. 161 sq.; Witherow's Hist. and Lit. Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland, 1886, ii. 187 sq.; Records of Gen. Synod of Ulster, 1897, ii. 507, 561.]
STEPHENSON, THOMAS (1552–1624), jesuit, was born in 1552 of catholic parents at Windlestone in the parish of St. Andrews, Auckland, Durham. He studied his humanities in England, and went through the higher course at the English College of Douay, then temporarily settled at Rheims, where he arrived on 22 June 1581. He was ordained priest there on 21 Dec. 1581, and was sent to the English mission on 13 April 1583. He was arrested on 13 Feb. 1583–4, committed to the Tower of London, and tried for high treason, but made so bold a defence that his life was spared, and after a year's confinement in the Tower he was sent into banishment, arriving at Rheims with seventy-one fellow-priests on 3 March 1584–1585. On seeking admission to the Society of Jesus he was sent to the novitiate at Brünn in Moravia on 11 Dec. 1585, and he was made a spiritual coadjutor on 3 June 1597. He spent twelve years at Prague and Olmütz as professor of Hebrew and Greek, and then became secretary to Robert Parsons [q. v.] in Rome. He was again sent to the English mission in 1605, being stationed for some time in the Suffolk district. He retired to Liège in 1621, and died at Watten on 23 March 1624.
He has been credited with the authorship of translations into Latin of several of Father Parsons's works, as well as of:
- ‘A large Catechism for the Instruction of the Ignorant.’
- ‘Historia Sacra ab Orbe Condito usque ad Christi Salvatoris Adventum,’ St. Omer, 1622.
- ‘The Life of Thomas Pounde.’
None of his works are in either the British Museum or the Bodleian library.
[De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1876), iii. 940; Dodd's Church History, ii. 418; Douay Diaries; Foley's Records, i. 471, vii. 739; More's Hist. Prov. Anglican. Soc. Jesu, p. 19; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 198; Sochero's Hist. Prov. Austriæ Soc. Jesu, viii. 355; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 768; Tanner's Societas Jesu Apostolorum Imitatrix.]
STEPNEY, CATHERINE, Lady (d. 1845), novelist, daughter of Thomas Pollok, LL.D. (d. 1801), rector of Grittleton, Wiltshire, by his wife Susannah (d. 1802), daughter of Charlton Palmer of London, was first married to Russell Manners, and under that name published two novels, ‘Castle Nuovier, or Henry and Adelina,’ 1806, and ‘The Lords of Erith,’ 1809. On 8 June 1813 she married, at Edinburgh, Sir Thomas Stepney, ninth and last baronet, groom of the bedchamber to H.R.H. the Duke of York. He had succeeded his brother, Sir John Stepney, in the baronetcy in October 1811. Sir Thomas died on 12 Sept. 1825 (Gent. Mag. 1825, ii. 277). His widow, who was pretty, accomplished, and fashionable, and made her house the rendezvous of authors and artists, died at Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, London, on 14 April 1845.
She wrote in later life four novels: ‘The New Road to Ruin,’ 1833; ‘The Heir Presumptive,’ 1835; ‘The Courtier's Daughter,’ 1838, 1841; and ‘The Three Peers,’ 1841, all in 3 vols. They show careful observation of London society. Lady Stepney also contributed to the fashionable annuals; but Miss Mitford declared that everything under Lady Stepney's name was rewritten by Miss Landon, ‘or the grammar and spelling would have disgraced a lady's maid’ (L'Estrange, Life of M. R. Mitford, iii. 94).
[Allibone's Dict. iii. 1214, 2241; Gent. Mag. 1845, ii. 86; Literary Gazette, 1845, pt. cclvii.; Jackson's History of Grittleton (Wiltshire Topographical Soc.), 1843, p. 22; Burke's Extinct Baronetage, p. 508.]
STEPNEY, GEORGE (1663–1707), poet and envoy, descended from the Stepneys of Prendergast in Pembrokeshire, was the son of George Stepney, groom of the chamber to Charles II, and grandson of Sir Thomas Stepney, knt., cupbearer to Charles I, by his wife, Mary, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir Bernard Whetstone, knt., of Woodford, Essex. He was born at Westminster in 1663, and was educated at Westminster School, where he was admitted on the foundation at Whitsuntide 1676, and formed his lifelong friendship with Charles Montagu (afterwards Earl of Halifax) [q. v.] After passing the unusual time of six years as a king's scholar at Westminster, he was elected a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, at Whitsuntide 1682. At Cambridge Stepney appears to have acquired a great reputation as a writer of Latin verse, and his ode on the marriage of the Princess Anne to Prince George of Denmark was published in the ‘Hymenæus Cantabrigiensis’ (Cambridge, 1683, 4to). He graduated B.A. in 1685,
