RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS




INTRODUCTION: THE SURNAME OF STEVENSON



From the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the various
disguises of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, and
Stewinsoune, spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of
Forth to the mouth of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it
occurs as a place-name. There is a parish of Stevenston in
Cunningham; a second place of the name in the Barony of Bothwell in
Lanark; a third on Lyne, above Drochil Castle; the fourth on the
Tyne, near Traprain Law. Stevenson of Stevenson (co. Lanark) swore
fealty to Edward I in 1296, and the last of that family died after
the Restoration. Stevensons of Hirdmanshiels, in Midlothian, rode
in the Bishops' Raid of Aberlady, served as jurors, stood bail for
neighbours--Hunter of Polwood, for instance--and became extinct
about the same period, or possibly earlier. A Stevenson of Luthrie
and another of Pitroddie make their bows, give their names, and
vanish. And by the year 1700 it does not appear that any acre of
Scots land was vested in any Stevenson. {2a}

Here is, so far, a melancholy picture of backward progress, and a
family posting towards extinction. But the law (however
administered, and I am bound to aver that, in Scotland, 'it couldna
weel be waur') acts as a kind of dredge, and with dispassionate