RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS

by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: THE SURNAME OF STEVENSON
I. DOMESTIC ANNALS

II. THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
III. THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCK

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. (1)

(1) An error: Stevensons owned at this date the barony of
Dolphingston in Haddingtonshire, Montgrennan in Ayrshire, and

several other lesser places.
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 impartiality brings up into the light

of day, and shows us for a moment, in the jury-box or on the
gallows, the creeping things of the past. By these broken

glimpses we are able to trace the existence of many other and
more inglorious Stevensons, picking a private way through the

brawl that makes Scots history. They were members of
Parliament for Peebles, Stirling, Pittenweem, Kilrenny, and

Inverurie. We find them burgesses of Edinburgh; indwellers in
Biggar, Perth, and Dalkeith. Thomas was the forester of

Newbattle Park, Gavin was a baker, John a maltman, Francis a
chirurgeon, and `Schir William' a priest. In the feuds of

Humes and Heatleys, Cunninghams, Montgomeries, Mures,
Ogilvies, and Turnbulls, we find them inconspicuously

involved, and apparently getting rather better than they gave.
Schir William (reverend gentleman) was cruellie slaughtered on

the Links of Kincraig in 1582; James ('in the mill-town of
Roberton'), murdered in 1590; Archibald ('in Gallowfarren'),

killed with shots of pistols and hagbuts in 1608. Three
violent deaths in about seventy years, against which we can

only put the case of Thomas, servant to Hume of Cowden Knowes,
who was arraigned with his two young masters for the death of

the Bastard of Mellerstanes in 1569. John ('in Dalkeith')
stood sentry without Holyrood while the banded lords were

despatching Rizzio within. William, at the ringing of Perth
bell, ran before Gowrie House `with ane sword, and, entering

to the yearde, saw George Craiggingilt with ane twa-handit
sword and utheris nychtbouris; at quilk time James Boig cryit

ower ane wynds, "Awa hame! ye will all be hangit" ' - a piece
of advice which William took, and immediately 'depairtit.'

John got a maid with child to him in Biggar, and seemingly
deserted her; she was hanged on the Castle Hill for

infanticide, June 1614; and Martin, elder in Dalkeith,
eternally disgraced the name by signing witness in a witch

trial, 1661. These are two of our black sheep. (1) Under the
Restoration, one Stevenson was a bailie in Edinburgh, and

another the lessee of the Canonmills. There were at the same
period two physicians of the name in Edinburgh, one of whom,

Dr. Archibald, appears to have been a famous man in his day
and generation. The Court had continual need of him; it was

he who reported, for instance, on the state of Rumbold; and he
was for some time in the enjoyment of a pension of a thousand

pounds Scots (about eighty pounds sterling) at a time when
five hundred pounds is described as 'an opulent future.' I do

not know if I should be glad or sorry that he failed to keep
favour; but on 6th January 1682 (rather a cheerless New Year's

present) his pension was expunged. (2) There need be no
doubt, at least, of my exultation at the fact that he was

knighted and recorded arms. Not quite so genteel, but still
in public life, Hugh was Under-Clerk to the Privy Council, and

liked being so extremely. I gather this from his conduct in
September 1681, when, with all the lords and their servants,

he took the woful and soul-destroying Test, swearing it 'word
by word upon his knees.' And, behold! it was in vain, for

Hugh was turned out of his small post in 1684. (3) Sir
Archibald and Hugh were both plainly inclined to be trimmers;

but there was one witness of the name of Stevenson who held
high the banner of the Covenant - John, 'Land-Labourer, (4) in

the parish of Daily, in Carrick,' that `eminently pious man.'
He seems to have been a poor sickly soul, and shows himself

disabled with scrofula, and prostrate and groaning aloud with
fever; but the enthusiasm of the martyr burned high within

him.
(1) Pitcairn's CRIMINAL TRIALS, at large. - [R. L. S.]

(2) Fountainhall's DECISIONS, vol. i. pp. 56, 132, 186,
204, 368.- [R. L. S.]

(3) IBID. pp. 158, 299. - [R. L. S.]
(4) Working farmer: Fr. LABOUREUR.

`I was made to take joyfully the spoiling of my goods,
and with pleasure for His name's sake wandered in deserts and

in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. I lay four
months in the coldest season of the year in a haystack in my

father's garden, and a whole February in the open fields not
far from Camragen, and this I did without the least prejudice

from the night air; one night, when lying in the fields near
to the Carrick-Miln, I was all covered with snow in the

morning. Many nights have I lain with pleasure in the
churchyard of Old Daily, and made a grave my pillow;

frequently have I resorted to the old walls about the glen,
near to Camragen, and there sweetly rested.' The visible band

of God protected and directed him. Dragoons were turned aside
from the bramble-bush where he lay hidden. Miracles were

performed for his behoof. `I got a horse and a woman to carry
the child, and came to the same mountain, where I wandered by

the mist before; it is commonly known by the name of
Kellsrhins: when we came to go up the mountain, there came on

a great rain, which we thought was the occasion of the child's
weeping, and she wept so bitterly, that all we could do could

not divert her from it, so that she was ready to burst. When
we got to the top of the mountain, where the Lord had been