STEPHENSON, John (1710-94), of Brentford Butts, Mdx.

Stephenson came of a Cumbrian yeoman family which had branched out into trade in Newcastle and London. He probably came to London under the aegis of his prosperous uncle, Sir William Stephenson (lord mayor in 1764), a hop merchant and distiller. He was possessed of a brewery, the Horse Shoe in Banbridge Street, St. Giles, at the time of his death, but after marrying a widow with £25,000Gent. Mag. (1741), 665. he became principally a Lisbon wine merchant, trading from the same address (Scotch Yard, Bush Lane) for nearly 50 years. He also developed an interest in government loans and East India Company affairs. Politically he was a protégé of Lord Sandwich. Subsequently he was a friend of Pitt’s administration and in 1790 came in again for Tregony as a guest of Richard Barwell, the nabob patron. Stephenson, then 80 years of age, was not active in his last Parliament. In April 1791 he was listed hostile to repeal of the Test Act in Scotland. He died 17 Apr. 1794.