John, were all shrewd and observant men, self-reliant and resolute.

Born June 9, 1781, George Stephenson could neither write nor read when he had attained the age of eighteen years. Up to that age he displayed no signs of unusual intelligence, but he had always been a good, sober, steady lad. Like most pit-children, he used to grub about in the dirt, and for his amusement fashion models of steamengines in clay. From his earliest years, also, he kept as pets pigeons, blackbirds, guinea-pigs, and rabbits; an almost universal trait amongst the colliery labourers of the Newcastle field.

In 1801, he became brakesman of the engine of the Dolly Pit, in Black Callerton, and lodged in the house of Thomas Thompson, a small farmer of that parish. George Stephenson was at that time a light-hearted young fellow, famous for. practical jokes, and proud of his muscular power. At this period, also, he acquired the art of shoe-cobbling.

The most important farmer of the parish was Mr. Thomas Hindmarsh, who occupied land which his ancestors had farmed for at least two centuries. To his grave displeasure, his daughter Elizabeth accepted the addresses of the young brakesman, giving him clandestine meetings in the orchard and behind the garden-fence, until such effectual measures were taken as prevented a repetition of the suitor's visits. Elizabeth, however, remained faithful to the lover, whom her father drove from his premises, and she eventually became his second, but not his last, wife.

George Stephenson took this disappointment lightly. He soon fixed his affections on Ann Henderson, daughter

of John Henderson, a small and impoverished farmer, near Capheaton. Like her two sisters Hannah and Frances (who were the female servants in Thomas Thompson's house) Ann was a domestic servant. At first she seemed well pleased with her lover, who, amongst other attentions, paid her one which deserves a few passing words.* Observing that her shoes wanted to be re-soled, he begged leave to mend them, and, the permission being granted, he not only repaired them, but boastfully displayed them to his companions. His triumph, however, was of short duration; for on returning the shoes to Ann, with a request for a warmer acknowledgement of his services than mere thanks, he was informed by her that he wooed where he could never win.

This second rejection was for a time deeply felt, but he concealed his chagrin, and then made up his mind that, since he could not have Ann, he would try his luck with her sister Fanny.

Fanny Henderson had for years been a servant in the house where George Stephenson was a lodger. When Thomas Thompson, more than ten years before, took the farm from the outgoing tenant, George Alder, she came into his service as part of the concern, with the following character:

Mr. Pattison, the nephew of Ann Henderson, and son of Elizabeth Henderson (who married Thomas Pattison, a tenant farmer of Black Callerton), writes thus: "The pair of shoes mentioned in the "Life of George Stephenson," as having been made for Fanny Henderson, afterwards his wife, were not for her, but for her sister Ann, whom he

ardently admired; but not succeeding with her, he said he would have one of the family, and he turned his attention to Fanny.' Mr. Pattison, the author of this statement, is employed in the factory of Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Co., Newcastle. His statement is corroborated by all the members of his mother's respectable family.

Black Callerton: April 10, 1791.

The bearer, Frances Henderson, is a girl of a sober disposition, an honest servant, and of a good family, as witness my hand, GEORGE ALDER.

She was no longer young, and it was the village gossip that she would never find a husband. As a girl, she had plighted her troth to John Charlton, the village schoolmaster of Black Callerton, but their long engagement was terminated in 1794 by the young man's death, when she was in her twenty-sixth year. She was therefore George's senior by twelve years; but it was not for her to object to the disparity of their ages, since he was willing to marry a woman so much older than himself. So, to the good-natured amusement of neighbours, and to the vexation of Ann Henderson, who did not enjoy the apparent unconcern with which her lover had passed from her to her old maid sister, George Stephenson was married at Newburn church on November 28th, 1802, to Fanny Henderson, the mother of the subject of this memoir.

Mr. Thomas Thompson gave the wedding breakfast to his faithful domestic servant and his young lodger, and signed his name in the parish register, as a witness of the marriage ceremony. George Stephenson had at that time so far advanced in the art of writing, that he was able to sign his own name (and his wife's maiden name also- if handwriting may be trusted as evidence on such a point) on the certificate. The signature is blurred — - possibly by the sleeve of his coat, as he stretched out his pen for another dip of ink before acting as his wife's secretary; but the handwriting is legible, and is a good specimen of George Stephenson's caligraphy.

For a short time after his marriage George Stephenson continued to reside at Black Callerton, lodging with his wife in a cottage not far from the Lough House, as Mr. Thomas Thompson's residence was called. This arrangement, however, did not last long. While he was acting as brakesman at Black Callerton, his father and his brothers James and John continued to work at Walbottle colliery, where the engineer was Robert Hawthorn, the ingenious and enterprising man whose sons still carry on the important locomotive factory at Newcastle that bears their name. At the opening of the present century, Robert Hawthorn, then known as one of the best enginewrights in the Newcastle country, erected the first ballast machine that ever worked on the banks of the Tyne. This machine was erected at Willington Quay (a station on the river side, about six miles below Newcastle), and was placed upon the quay, on the edge of the river.* When the work was completed, Hawthorn exerted his influence in favour of the Dolly Pit brakesman, the consequence of which was, that the latter quitted Black Callerton (situated a few miles above Newcastle), and became the brakesman of the Ballast Hill engine. It was while he held this appointment that George Stephenson first set up as a housekeeper on his own humble account-that is to say, first bought bedding and such modest furniture as he required for

two rooms in a cottage stationed hard by the engine on Willington Quay. As everything connected with the career of this remarkable man is interesting, it is worthy of mention that at the time of his marriage he had not saved sufficient money to buy the upholstery and fittings of his new home. In marrying Fanny Henderson, however, he had, in a pecuniary sense, bettered himself. When they mounted the horse which Mr. Burn of the Red House farm, Wolsingham, put at their service, and made their progress from their furnished lodgings at Black Callerton to their new domicile on the other side of Newcastle, George had in his pocket a handsome number of gold pieces - the savings of his careful wife during long years of domestic service. A portion of this money was expended on household goods, the rest being laid by against a rainy day.

Marriage made a great difference in George Stephenson, and on settling at Willington he applied himself earnestly to the work of self-education. On October 16th, 1803,* his wife gave birth to a son, who was christened Robert: the ceremony was performed in the Wallsend school-house, as the parish church was unfit for use. The sponsors were Robert Gray and Ann Henderson, but they were by no means the only guests at the christening. Proud of being a father, George called together his kinsmen from the Wylam and Newburn districts, and gave them hospitable entertainment. His father, mother, and brothers answered the summons. So Robert Stephenson was received into the family with

Robert Stephenson stated that

he was born in the month of November, and his birthday was always

celebrated at that time; but the extract from the register proves his birth to have been in October.