Meanwhile, George, like most other young men, had fallen in love.
His sweetheart, Fanny Henderson, was servant at the small farmhouse
where he had taken lodgings since leaving his father's home; and
though but little is known about her (for she unhappily died before
George had begun to rise to fame and fortune), what little we do
know seems to show that she was in every respect a fitting wife for
the active young brakesman, and a fitting mother for his equally
celebrated son, Robert Stephenson. Fired by the honourable desire
to marry Fanny, with a proper regard for prudence, George set
himself to work to learn cobbling in his spare moments; and so
successfully did he cobble the worn shoes of his fellow-colliers
after working hours, that before long he contrived to save a whole
guinea out of his humble earnings. That guinea was the first step
towards an enormous fortune; a fortune, too, all accumulated by
steady toil and constant useful labour for the ultimate benefit of
his fellow-men. To make a fortune is the smallest and least noble
of all possible personal ambitions; but to save the first guinea
which leads us on at last to independence and modest comfort is
indeed an important turning-point in every prudent man's career.
Geordie Stephenson was so justly proud of his achievement in this
respect that he told a friend in confidence he might now consider
himself a rich man.

By the time George was twenty-one, he had saved up enough by
constant care to feel that he might safely embark on the sea of
housekeeping. He was able to take a small cottage lodging for
himself and Fanny, at Willington Quay, near his work at the moment,
and to furnish it with the simple comfort which was all that their
existing needs demanded. He married Fanny on the 28th of November,
1802; and the young couple proceeded at once to their new home.