Appendix E: Biographies

Stevenson and Smith

Walter Stevenson (bap. Edinburgh 8 September 1788 – London 10 May 1860),1 was the son of George and Elizabeth (Sharp) Stevenson. He joined the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh in 1803 and by 1807 was third teller at the Head Office with an annual salary of £120. On 29 May 1807, Walter Stevenson married in Edinburgh2 Frances Morton (bap. Edinburgh 27 April 1783 – London 16 October 1845).3 Frances (Morton) Stevenson was the daughter of Walter and Rebecca (Finlay) Morton.4 The Stevensons had at least five children, all born in Scotland: Rebecca (bap. Edinburgh, St. Cuthberts 16 March 1810), Walter Morton (bap. Edinburgh St. Cuthberts 17 December 1812), George (b. c. 1816), Eliza Isabella Wellwood (Edinburgh c. 18215 – London 11 February 1889),6 and Francis (c. 1828 – 1 February 1902).7 The Stevensons were evidently friends of the recently widowed (1820) Eliza Isabella (McNeill) Wellwood (the future Mrs. John Winstanley; see Image 40), as their daughter, Eliza Isabella Wellwood Stevenson, was her namesake.

Walter Stevenson continued to work his way up at the Bank of Scotland and on 20 August 1837 was appointed chief teller at an annual salary of £350.8 On 22 January 1840, his career there ended. A Minute of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Scotland for that date announces: “Declaration of Walter Stevenson teller in the Bank’s Head Office being read, in which he admits the deficiency in the cash under his charge to a large amount. The Directors dismiss Mr. Stevenson from his situation as teller.”9 Probably thirty-seven years of service and extenuating circumstances saved him from being charged with fraud. The 1841 Census shows the Stevenson family already living in London, at 3 Ferdinand Terrace, St. Pancras, except for Rebecca and Walter Morton, who may have chosen to remain in Scotland.10 Walter Stevenson was described as a person of “Independent Means,” George as a surgeon, and Francis as an apprentice.11 On 24 September 1844, Eliza Isabella Wellwood Stevenson married at St. Pancras Church12 Thomas Macdougall Smith (Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1 November 1816 – London 24 January 1886).13 Both resided in St. Pancras Parish, and they were married by license.14 The witnesses were Francis Stevenson, the bride’s brother, and Catherine Shaw, daughter of Georgina and John Shaw15 (see Shaw and Wardrop in this Appendix and Images 486–487). The Smiths had no children. At the time of the marriage of his daughter, Walter Stevenson was described in the Marriage Register as “gent.”16 In the Post Office Directories for 1844 and 1845, he was listed as “Surgeon.” Frances (Morton) Stevenson, described in her death certificate as the “Wife of Walter Stevenson Gentleman,” died on 16 October 1845.17 Francis Stevenson, unmarried, an engineer, was recorded as being in his father’s home at 6 Albert Street in the 1851 Census.18 Walter Stevenson and his daughter, Eliza, were each left £100 by John Winstanley in his will of 1859. Walter Stevenson died on 10 May 1860. His occupation was described in his death certificate as “formerly a Bank Cashier.”19

Thomas Macdougall Smith, called “Tom Smith” by his close friends, was a distinguished civil engineer.20 In 1835, he had joined the office of Walker and Burges, then considered the “great nursery of civil engineers in England.”21 Here he became a first-class draftsman and surveyor, noted for the painstaking detail of his work.22 On leaving the firm, he received an appointment to the engineering staff of the London and Birmingham Railway, becoming in 1844 resident engineer of the Leamington branch line.23 He later went into mining work.24 He was elected a graduate of the Institution of Civil Engineering on 24 March 1840 and on 17 February 1846 made a member.25 It is not clear when Smith and Major Whistler met, but it was Smith, at Major Whistler’s request, who approached William Boxall to paint the portrait of James Whistler in 1848 (see Images 209, 28).26 A copy of his Memoir of Pont-y-tu-Prydd over the River Tâfe in the County of Glamorgan (1838) was part of the library of James Whistler.27 In 1851, Thomas and Eliza (Stevenson) Smith were living at 1 Chapel (or Duke) Place, Westminster.28 London directories and censuses list him as living at the same address from 1851 to 1886.29 Thomas M. Smith died on 21 January 1886. His personal estate amounted to some £2000.30 His will was proved on 4 March 1886 by his goddaughter, Alice Jeannette Taylor, of 1 Chapel Place, one of the executrixes.31 He was described in his obituary as having a “purity of character and gentleness of manner” that “endeared him to all with whom he was long in contact.”32

Eliza (Stevenson) Smith was listed as living at 1 Chapel Place for the further years of 1887 to 1889 and died there on 11 February 1889.33 Her personal estate amounted to about £102.34 Administration of her personal estate was granted on 22 August 1889 at the Principal Registry to Francis Stevenson of 104 Regents Park Road in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, the brother and only next of kin.35

The Smith home was one of the places where Anna Whistler and Deborah (Whistler) Haden would meet after James Whistler and Francis Seymour Haden quarreled.36

Notes