Our link into the Steward branch is through my great-grandmother Alice Sophia (Walton) Steward ⁽⁶⁾. In a manuscript, which I believe to be in her hand, she names her earliest ancestor as a John Steward ⁽⁴³⁸⁾ who was Sheriff of London in 1343 and names another John Steward⁽⁴³⁵⁾, who was also Sheriff on London, in 1456. There is no information at present to establish a link between these two John Stewards, or between them and later Stewards. Another John Steward ⁽⁴³¹⁾, who died in the middle of the 16th century, is said by Alice Sophia to have had three children, John Steward⁽⁴³⁰⁾, Agnes Steward⁽⁴³²⁾ and Thomas Steward⁽⁴³³⁾. Alice Sophia then jumps to a James Steward⁽¹²⁹⁾ who married in 1725, but the unknown compiler of a Steward pedigree which I have from my cousin Jean Kingdon and also from Mary Southwell has filled in intermediate generations. Neither of these secondary sources give any indication of where their information came from. The table of Steward generations below is thus based on these two sources, with dates confirmed by the IGI where available. A study of microfilm or fiche of the original parish registers remains to be undertaken.

Steward generations

Alice Sophia (Walton) STEWARD

Alice was the youngest of eleven children born to James Steward ⁽¹²³⁾ and Alice Lacell ⁽¹²⁴⁾. She was born on 14 Oct 1841 at Dover, in Kent, and died on 04 Feb 1931 at the age of 89.

There is a manuscript which I believe to be in the hand of Alice Sophia which my mother had, and which provides a lot of, perhaps not always accurate, information on the Steward side of the family. I have transcribed the manuscript, and quote from it here from time to time. Lots of connections by marriage are included in it, not all of which are yet included in these pages.

The reason for the brackets around the name Walton above is, in Alice Sophia’s own words:

The name of Walton was from my grandmother. I was baptized by my father who disapproved of the church formula, and my aunt Mannning had me baptized at St. Pancras when I was about 7 years old and in her agitation she left Walton out. I was not believed but before my marriage a certificate was sent for and I was found to be right, my name being only Alice Sophia Steward.

(Note: in the IGI there are two baptism entries for Alice Sophia Steward, one in Llandudno, Carnarvon, "about 1839", and the other on 19 Apr. 1848 at St. Pancras, Old Church. I have not yet checked the originals of these, but they agree with ASB’s memory).

In theory, Alice Sophia’s birth should be in the early records of the GRO, as civil registration in England started in 1837, but I have not found her there. The birth date which she gives in the extracts from her diaries is 14 Oct 1841, at Dover in Kent. This date and place of birth are also given in the IGI, though the entry is not a standard IGI entry from parish records.

Alice Sophia has quite a lot to say about her early life in the extracts from her diaries. The family moved from Dover to West Cowes on the Isle of Wight when she was still young. She also remembered being at Reigate, Dorking, Brighton, Leamington and Tunbridge Wells. From there they moved to Bitterne, a village near Southampton. The move to Llandudno took place, ASB thought, in 1858, when Alice Sophia was about 17 and still at school in Brighton.

In the winter of 1859/60 Alice Sophia met Archibald Briggs at "the Cottage" (by the Cottage I think Alice Sophia was referring to Greenbank Cottage, Liverpool, where her sister Jane lived after her marriage to Philip Rathbone in 1853). Alice Sophia married Archibald Briggs on 11 Sep 1860 at Llandudno, and I have a copy of the entry in the marriage register. The had 6 children, for which see the entry for Archibald BRIGGS ⁽⁵⁾.

Alice Sophia must have kept a diary, and in 1907 has privately printed a book entitled "Leaves from the diary of A.S.B.", and she headed the first page "A few reminiscences of my life that may intrest my children. " A copy of this book is in the posession of one of her great-grandchildren, in Sydney, Australia, and other copies may well exist.

James STEWARD

James Steward ⁽¹²³⁾ was the son of John Clarke Steward ⁽¹²⁵⁾ and Elizabeth Walton ⁽¹²⁶⁾, and he was the second of five children. There is an IGI reference to his birth at Blackwall, Essex, in 1794, and the same reference gives the date of his death as 12 Nov 1870. His death certificate confirms this date and shows that he died at Moor House, Stanley, which was where Alice Sophia and Archibald Briggs were living at the time. His death was notified by James Dick Steward, who was present.

James Steward married Alice Lacell ⁽¹²⁴⁾. There is no record of this marriage on the IGI, but the date is given in a Steward pedigree of unknown provenance as 12 Jun 1817. Alice Sophia, in her manuscript, has the following to say:

To return to James Steward who married Alice Lacell, he told me he ran away with her to Gretna Green but no other member of the family knows it. They were very young and began life farming. Indeed my father was of an excitable disposition, very optimistic, very improvident and very unsuccessful. He appears to have lost largely in farming, being financed by his brother Richard who never married and by his mother. The old lady in her portrait looks a stern hard old lady and ‘Ann’ told me wore a brown frock and a cap all her married life. She was very tall and stately and walked with a long stick with a silver top.

Since their first child, James Dick Steward, was born in 1818, the marriage date of 12 Jun 1817 looks reasonable. If they did marry at Gretna Green, I don’t know whether any form of wedding register existed at the time, or has survived. There is however, a recent note of the surfacing at auction of a wedding register “listing bigamists, cads and eloping couples who wed at Gretna Hall in Gretna Green during 1825 and 1854” (Family Tree Magazine, September 2002), so you never know.

Later, Alice Sohpia says:

My father gave up farming and studied for the church, but Dr Sumner then Bishop of Chester refused to ordain him as he would not accept the doctrine of the Trinity. He therefore would not have me baptized with the Trinitarian formula. After his rejection by Dr Sumner, he went through the Lancashire factory districts as a missionary to the operatives. He used to say the hand-loom weavers chanted as they worked:

Clicketty clack
Clicketty clack
Thin water porridge
and scarcely that.

After this he took up engineering and spent a great deal of money trying to fix beacons on the shifting Goodwin Sands. He made many costly models which he showed to the Admiralty but none were accepted

According to Alice Sophia's manuscript and diary, James and Alice had 11 childen.

Children of James Steward⁽¹²³⁾ and Alice Lacell⁽¹²⁴⁾

John Clark STEWARD

John Clark Steward ⁽¹²⁵⁾ was, according to Alice Sophia, born in 1760 and was the second child to be named John Clark. The first one died in 1756. There is an IGI reference to a John Clark Steward, son of Richard Steward⁽¹²⁷⁾ and Elizabeth, who was born on 9 Jun 1753 and christened at St. Dunstan in the East, London, on 30 Jun 1753. There is nothing in the IGI on the christening of another John Clark Steward in or around 1760. The microfilm of parish records from St. Dunstan runs out in 1758, so maybe there are other records available, not yet on the IGI. A Steward Pedigree of unknown provenance gives 01 Apr 1760 for the birth of the second John Clark Steward.

John Clark Steward ⁽¹²⁵⁾ married Elizabeth Walton ⁽¹²⁶⁾ on 11 Feb 1783 at St. Dunstan, Stepney, according to an IGI entry, which would put him in his early twenties. I know nothing for sure about Elizabeth Walton. Alice Sophia gives nothing other than that she came from Stepney, which agrees with where the wedding took place. There are a few candidates listed in the IGI, of which one was baptised in Stepney, but there is nothing to tell whether this is the correct Elizabeth Walton.

John Clark and Elisabeth had five children.

Children of John Clark Steward⁽¹²⁵⁾ and Elizabeth Walton⁽¹²⁶⁾

John Clark Steward died on 24 Mar 1799 (Steward Pedigree).

Richard STEWARD

According to the IGI, Richard Steward⁽¹²⁷⁾ was born about 1727, of St. Mary's At Hill. The Steward Pedigree gives the year of his birth as 1730. It is not clear whether St. Mary's at Hill was his parish of baptism or his parish at the time of his marriage. The IGI references to his birth do not quote primary sources. His parents were yet another James Steward⁽¹²⁹⁾ and Jane Freeland ⁽¹³⁰⁾.

Richard married Elizabeth Clark ⁽¹²⁸⁾, on 17 July 1752 at St. George’s Chapel Mayfair, London, also known as the Keith Chapel. Clark was Elizabeth's name from her first marriage, and Alice Sophia Briggs says she was the daughter of a J. Nottsford. They had 8 children.

Children of Richard Steward⁽¹²⁷⁾ and Elizabeth Clark (née Nottsford)⁽¹²⁸⁾

James STEWARD

Alice Sophia says this James Steward⁽¹²⁹⁾was born in 1725, but I think it more likely that he married in that year. According to a Steward Pedigree his parents were James Steward ⁽⁴¹⁸⁾ and Elizabeth Dixon⁽⁴¹⁹⁾ . James Steward⁽¹²⁹⁾ married Jane Freeland⁽¹³⁰⁾, (Stewarde Pedigree) but there is, at present, no IGI entry for this marriage. Alice Sophia says Jane Freeland was the daughter of Peter Freeland⁽¹³¹⁾ and Elinor Levingston ⁽¹³²⁾, both of Scotland. There is an IGI entry for a Jane Freeland’s christening on 31 Mar 1706 at St. Dunstan, Stepney, and also an entry for the marriage of her parents which took place at St. Michael’s, Cornhill, London, on 10 June 1705. The entry also says they were both of Scotland. My guess is therefore that this James Steward⁽¹²⁹⁾ was born a few years before 1706. I do not know the sources used for the manuscript Steward Pedigree from which these connections and dates come. Alice Sophia leaves a big gap from the middle of the 16^th century and it is speculation at present as to whether the earlier names she mentions are actually connected to the family. She does say that each early Steward seems to have been a City merchant in the neighbourhood of Aldgate.

James STEWARD

There is no information available to me on the birth of this James Steward(418), only that he is supposed to have married Elizabeth Dixon ⁽⁴¹⁹⁾ on 01 Sep 1689 at St. James, Aldgate (Stgeward Pedigree). There is no IGI entry for this marriage.

John STEWARD

This John Steward was Sheriff of London in the 35th year of Henry IV, that is 1456/57. Alice Sophia Briggs says this was in the reign of Edward IV, and the Steward pedigree indicates the 13th year of Edward IV (1473/4) whilst still giving the year as 1456.

John STEWARD

This John Steward, according to Alice Sophia Briggs the earliest known member of the Steward family, was Sheriff of London in 1343. In John Stowe's Survey of London, in the Everyman's Library Edition, the list of Mayors and Shriffs of London shows a John Steward, together with John Aylesham as Sheriffs of London in the 17th year of Edward III, that is for the term 1343/44 when John Hamond was Lord Mayor. ASB also says that he was born in the parish of St. Mary Axe in the 17th year of Edward III, but that year clearly cannot be correct. At the moment nothing is known of whom this John Steward married, what children he had, when he died, or whether in fact he is an ancestor at all.

Stewards and Stewarts

Alice Sophia does mention one other family myth,and says:

The report in part of the Stringer family that we had very aristocratic relatives and that the name was originally Stewart the ‘t’ being changed to ‘d’ at the time of the Rebellion must I think have arisen from Prince Charlie having hidden in the house of one of our family leaving behind a dress Stuart plaid in satin and having given his sword and a seal to those who sheltered him. The sword and seal are now in possession of Yorke Steward, a descendant of James who married Elizabeth Bache 1794. The scarf I foolishly gave to Edgar Steward son of my brother Jas Dick and I fear Edgar may sell it!
In all probability Prince Charlie did shelter with the Stewards who had for generations riverside premises and likely hiding places and the Prince probably flattered the Stewards by noticing the similarity of names and so the tradition arose of our aristocratic and Scottish origins but in truth the Stewards were always English merchants.

This myth is possibly the reason why, at school where the kilt was required wear on Sundays, my brothers and I wore a Hunting Stewart tartan. However, if she is talking about the Young Pretender and the 1745 rebellion, did not Bonnie Prince Charlie escape directly from Skye to France, after the battle of Culloden in 1746? However, in September 1750, Charles did go to London. Fitzroy Maclean’s book Bonnie Prince Charlie says:

We only know that in September 1750 Charles himself did in fact go to London, crossing from Antwerp in "an Abbé’s dress with a black patch over his eye and his eyebrows black’d" and arrived in London four days later under the name of Smith. Just what he was hoping to achieve is obscure. "Parted ye 2^nd Sep." he jotted down on a sheet of paper which still survives. "Arrived to A [Antwerp] ye 6^th. Parted from thence ye 12^th Sept. E [England] ye 14^th., and at L [London] ye 16^th. Parted from L ye 22^nd and arrived at P [Paris] ye 24^th. From P ye 28^th. Arrived here ye 30^th Sept."

As to how he spent his time in London, we have only disjointed scraps of information. He is thought to have stayed in Essex Street, off the Strand, at a house belonging to Lady Primrose.

It seems possible that Charles was again in England in the autumn of 1752. So on either of these occasions he might have had contact with the Steward family in London. Who knows?

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© John Stowell 2004/2006    Last edited 06 Oct 2006