John Stevenson (1843 - 189?)

 
 

Birth

 

Possible date of birth:
1843 (source: see below, Update June 2017, Age 48)

Parents

Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown

Siblings

Unknown




 
 

Marriage

 

Hessie Stevenson

Children

1880 Hessie Stevenson
1884 Emily Stevenson
1888 John Stevenson
1891 Alfred Stevenson (Died 1891, 5 months old)




 
 

Death

 

between 1891 and 1896
(a possible DOD, see below, Update June 201)


Biographical Notes and Snippets…
John Stevenson was a well sinker ...

I did an Internet-search for "well sinker" and got 439 (!) entries back.

Just looking through the search results, not the sites themselves, turned up things like ..

... Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well- sinker might carry his shaft down many hundred feet without coming to the end of the chalk;

... He is also listed as a Well - Sinker and was reputedly very good at his job. Perhaps he was good with a divining rod to find where the water lay. ...

... A well sinker, named Larry O'Toole, is credited with finding the first opal in Mintabie in the 1920's.

... etc, etc.

I suppose when you couldn't just ring up the water-works and ask them to supply water, the well sinker must have been quite in demand.


Updated: June 2017

A RootsChatter, 'A', came across some interesting Stevenson information while researching:
Royal Hospital- Yesterday the following cases were admitted to this institution… John Stevenson, aged 48, well-sinker, residing at 93, Island Street, suffering from injury to the eye, sustained while working. Northern Whig (Belfast), 1 Jan.1891
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN WHIG… would like to correct your account of it in some particulars. John Stevenson, who is a well sinker by trade, and who resides in Ballymacarrett [Belfast], has for time past been engaged in sinking well in our premises in Donaghadee. On the day before Christmas… Northern Whig (Belfast), 1 Jan.1891
Belfast Newsletter, 3 Jan.1891: “Stevenson has been boring and blasting wells all his lifetime, both here and in America.” Belfast Newsletter, 3 Jan.1891
Thank you 'A', for sharing this information.