STEVENSON, William

1751 - 1821

William Stevenson was baptised at East Retford, Nottinghamshire on 26 April 1751, second son of Revd Seth Ellis Stevenson (1724-17 July 1793), rector of East Retford and Master of Retford School, and his first wife Catharine née Haworth, who married at Authorpe, Lincolnshire on 17 April 1750. William trained as an artist in the neighbourhood of London and was later a student at the Royal Academy Schools during the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), ‘through whose encouraging suggestion he was induced to embrace the profession of miniature painting' and on leaving London, intended for a career as a miniature painter. He lived at Bury St Edmund’s, Suffolk 1774-1782, where he became known to Peter Gedge (1758-1818), the former Norwich printer, whose mother was Alice, daughter of William Chase, proprietor of the 'Norwich Mercury'. In 1783, William Stevenson went to live in Norwich where he taught drawing and he married at St George's Tombland on 28 May 1783, as her second husband, Catherine Chase, daughter of the Norwich printer, their son was Seth William Stevenson (23 March 1785-buried 8 January 1854), Catherine had previously married on 26 September 1771, Jonathan Matchett, a surgeon. About 1785, Stevenson entered partnership with a John Crouse, proprietor of 'Norwich Gazette' later renamed 'The Norfolk Chronicle', trading as Crouse and Stevenson, and in 1794 were joined by Jonathan Matchett with whom Stevenson remained a partner until time of his death. In 1812 Stevenson produced a new edition of 'A History of the Cathedral Church of Ely', originally published in 1771 by James Bentham, adding a further substantial supplement of his own in 1817. He also edited John Campbell’s 'Lives of the British Admirals' and contributed frequently to the 'Gentleman’s Magazine' and Nichols’s 'Literary Anecdotes'. William Stevenson served the office of sheriff of the city of Norwich in 1799 and died at his house in Surrey Street, Norwich on 13 May 1821, aged seventy-one, and a monumental memorial was placed in the local parochial church. His son Seth William Stevenson succeeded his father as proprietor and virtual editor of the Norfolk Chronicle.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 9 Crown Court, Westminster
1777 334 two miniatures

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Works by This Artist