The Stevensons originate from another parish in Wigtownshire, Stoneykirk. Stoneykirk lies in the middle of the Rhinns of Galloway, that double headed peninsula that forms the westernmost part of the Shire, and since the 1600s this large parish has included Toskerton and Clayshant.

The pastures of its hilly green farms run from the Irish Channel where in corners protected from the winds subtropical gardens flourish, to where Freugh flattens out to the sands of Luce Bay. It is flat enough in this hilly county to have been the home of a Royal Air Force station, and also arable enough that in 1791 it was reported as the premier grain exporting parish of Wigtownshire.

Stranraer, to the north, is the nearest town, while Stoneykirk itself is just a village with its kirk and kirkyard on the main road south to Port Logan, Drummore and finally the Mull of Galloway. Doon Castle with its thirteen foot thick walls is a prehistoric broch or fortification at Ardwell Bay, while in the south of the parish, in Kirkmadrine, are to be seen the oldest Christian monuments in Scotland outside Whithorn, inscribed standing stones dating probably from the 5th century AD.

Fishing was once an industry of tiny ports on the rocky West Coast, which is also noted for many caves, one of which might have been the retreat of the mythical Scots cannibal rogue Sawney Bean!

The earliest Stevenson we have is Samuel who married Elizabeth McAnully. Between them they had at least one child, a boy, Charles born around 1845 in Stoneykirk.

Charles went onto marry Janet Spiers, daughter of James Spiers and Elizabeth Purdie, on 23rd June 1870 in Stoneykirk, and possibly in the church above. The IGI record shows this and also their approximate birth years.

How many children they had I do not know but for sure one of them was Isabella Ross Stevenson, born in 1880 and who went onto marry John McCamon.



The wedding and subsequent descendants can be found in the McCamon section

Samuel Stevenson Descendants Chart    Samuel Stevenson Family Tree 4 Generations