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  1. #1
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    Default Nelly Stephenson

    I am trying to find out if Nelly Steohenson (sister of George (Stephenson's Rocket) married. If so to whom did she marry.

    I am tracing the family history of a friend whose middle name is Stephenson, as was his father's, grandfather's and gr. grandfather's. He had been led to believe that his family is somehow related to George.

    George's only sister died, his daughter died and his only son did not have children. So I am trying to trace Nelly (or Eleanor).

  2. #2
    RobinC
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    From Wikipedia:

    George Stephenson was born in Wylam, Northumberland, 9.3 miles (15.0 km) west of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the second child of Robert and Mabel,[1] neither of whom could read or write. Robert was the fireman for Wylam Colliery pumping engine, earning a low wage, so that there was no money for schooling. At 17, Stephenson became an engineman at Water Row Pit, Newburn. George realised the value of education and paid to study at night school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. In 1801 he began work at Black Callerton colliery as a ‘brakesman’, controlling the winding gear of the pit. In 1802 he married Frances (Fanny) Henderson and moved to Willington Quay, east of Newcastle. There he worked as a brakesman while they lived in one room of a cottage. George made shoes and mended clocks to supplement his income. In 1803 their son Robert was born, and in 1804 they moved to West Moor, near Killingworth while George worked as a brakesman at Killingworth pit. His wife gave birth to a daughter, who died after a few weeks, and in 1806 Fanny died of consumption. George, then decided to find work in Scotland, and he left Robert with a local woman while he went to work in Montrose. After a few months he returned, probably because his father was blinded in a mining accident. George moved back into his cottage at West Moor and his unmarried sister Eleanor moved in to look after Robert. In 1811 the pumping engine at High Pit, Killingworth was not working properly and Stephenson offered to fix it. He did so with such success that he was soon promoted to enginewright for the neighbouring collieries at Killingworth, responsible for maintaining and repairing all of the colliery engines. He soon became an expert in steam-driven machinery.
    It seems that she was unmarried in 1806.

    George and Fanny married at Newburn Church on 28 November 1802. They had two children Robert (1803) and Fanny (1805) but the girl died within weeks, and George's wife died, probably of consumption, the year after. While George was away working in Scotland, Robert was brought up by a succession of neighbours and then by George's unmarried sister Eleanor (Nelly), who continued living with them in Killingworth on George's return.

    George Stephenson had two children:

    Robert was born on 16 October 1803 and married Frances Sanderson, daughter of a City of London professional John Sanderson, on 17 June 1829. Robert died in 1859 having no children.
    His daughter was born in 1805 but died within weeks of her birth.
    It appears that their bloodline died out unfortunately.

  3. #3
    DavidWilliams
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    Default Brief life of Nelly Stephenson

    Eleanor (Nelly) Stephenson was born on 16 April 1784 in Wylam, Northumberland. While still a young girl, she went to London to work in domestic service, but came back after she received a letter from a sweetheart back home offering marriage. However, by the time she arrived he had married another. Nelly turned to the church for comfort. It seemed that she would continue a spinster, especially after she took on the upbringing of her brother George's son, Robert, and lived with the widowed father and son in their cottage in West Moor near Killingworth; but then she met Stephen Liddle, whom she married on 27 May 1824 at St John's Church, Westgate Street, Newcastle. Despite her age on marriage, the couple went on to have three children, Stephenson Liddle (1825-1843), Eleanor Liddle (1826-1826) and Margaret Liddle (1825-1852). Nelly's husband Stephen worked for George at the Forth Street Works where The Rocket was made, and was unfortunately fatally injured there in an accident. (George's brother John also died in an accident at the works.) George subsequently paid for Nelly's keep until her own death a year before his - she died in June 1847 - and after her death made provision for her surviving daughter Margaret, who went to live with a Mrs Willis.

  4. #4
    DavidWilliams
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    Sue, it seems from your note that you believe George had only one sister. In fact, as well as Nelly, there was sister Ann, born in Wylam on 19 July 1792. Ann married John Nixon in 1814 and they emigrated to America, specifically Pittsburgh. The couple had six children: Jane (1815-1884), Robert (1818-1900), Mary (1821-1892), Joseph (1824-1892), Ann (b 1826), and Ellen (1831-1900). After her husband's death, Ann remarried and was subsequently known as Mrs Anna York. Ann died in 1860. She has a surviving great-great-great grandson through the line of her daughter, George's niece, Ann. The surviving descendant's name is Robert Stephenson Roper, and I believe he lives in the UK. He wrote a foreword to Len Thompson's History of Tapton House, which was George's final home in Chesterfield where he died. See also my biographical note on Nelly.

  5. #5
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    Default

    Thank you all so much for the information. I am still trying to find the Stephenson link with the family I am researching and so I shall now look into the line of George Stephenson Roper.

  6. #6
    DavidWilliams
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    Default Nelly Stephenson

    OK, Sue. Note, though, that the surviving descendant's name is Robert Stephenson Roper, not George.

  7. #7
    David R McKay
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    My great grandfather's middle name was Stephenson. He was Robert Stephenson McKay. He was a stone mason, I have researched both George Stephenson and his son Robert. My great grand father, and the Stephenson's seemed be in the same locations at the same time. George was involved in designing the port at Freaserburgh Scotland. This is where my Robert was born, according to family records. The census of 1841, Robert had left Scotland and was living on Cleveland Street in Hartlepool, England. He was there as a stone mason. The Stephenson family was also there as contractors for the Stockton Darington Railroad. In 1845 Robert was in Manchester as a stone mason, as was Robert Stephenson for building the Liverpool Manchester Railroad and other major constructions. I have often wondered if there was a connection.
    David Reid McKay

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