Notes:

He was a Captain of a privateer off the American coast during the American war of Independence.
He also ran the Douglas brothers' privateering vessels.
Previuosly a clerk in the bank of England

(Research):A William Stevenson was captain of the slave ships John (1786; slaves landed on Dominica), Rose (1781-1784; Jamaica) and the Spy (1776; Jamaica.) A connection has not been established.

On the 28th of April, 1781, Captain Stevenson of the slave-ship Rose, wrote to his owners, in Liverpool, from Old Harbour, Jamaica, in the following terms: -

"This is to inform you of my safe arrival here on the 16th inst, after a passage of 48 days from Cape Coast, but had the misfortune the day before we got in here, to fall in with a French privateer of 14 guns, and 85 men, called the Mould, belonging to Cape Nichola Mole, off the S.E. end of this island. At first coming up with us, we gave her two broadsides with our great guns and small arms, which she returned in the like manner, but her intention was for boarding us, he at last came up on our starboard quarter, with a stinkpot fast to the end of his gaff, thinking to swing it on board, but one of the Trantee slaves shot it away with his musquet. He then grappled our main chains, and we lay together yardarm and yardarm for [565] above one glass, when he thought proper to sheer off, having got his belly full. I had about fifty men, black and white, on deck at great guns and small arms, halfpikes, boathooks, boat oars, steering-sail-yards, firewood, and slack ballast, which they threw at the Frenchmen in such a manner that their heads rattled against one another like so many empty callibashes.

"My people all behaved very well, both white and black. We lost a white man named Peter Cane ; myself wounded, and five other white people, as likewise seven blacks, one of which is since dead, the other six I am in hopes will recover. The Frenchmen hove such a large quantity of powder flasks on board us, that the ship abaft was all in a blaze of fire three different times; this hurt the blacks much, having no trowsers on them. I had my own shirt burnt off my back. After that I received a ball through my right shoulder, but, thank God, it was in the latter part of the action, so that I did not lose much blood. On the doctor's examining my wound, he found the ball was gone clean through my shoulder."

The Rose carried 12 guns, three and four-pounders, and 30 white people. On the 12th of June in the following year, she was taken on the Coast of Africa, by two French frigates and a cutter, and sent to England as a cartel with prisoners. The Othello (Letter of Marque) Captain Johnson, a slave-ship belonging to Messrs. Heywood & Co., on her voyage to the coast of Africa, took the St. Anne, 300 tons burthen, from Buenos Ayres for Cadiz, with a cargo of 8,500 dry hides, 1 80 boxes of Peruvian bark, and four sacks of fine Spanish wool, the whole valued at ?20,000.* The prizemaster put into Killybegs, in September, 1781, to await orders from the Messrs. Heywood, before venturing to proceed to Liverpool, on account of the swarm of the enemies' privateers on the coast and in the Channel.

Betsey 5th slave trading voyage (1772? 1773): Captain Conway sailed from Liverpool on 25 April 1772. She acquired her slaves at Bonny and brought them to Jamaica. She had left Liverpool with 32 crew members and she had 25 when she arrived at Jamaica. At some point Captain William Stephenson replaced Conway. Betsey left Jamaica on 8 March 1773 and arrived back at Liverpool on 15 May. In all, she had suffered eight crew deaths on her voyage
Between 1768 and 1777 Betsey made eight voyages transporting slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean.

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Douglas. Elizabeth (daughter of William (of Worcester) Douglas) was born in 1752 in Worcester, England; died on 3 Apr 1852; was buried in Douglas Mausoleum, Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
Marriage details 20 Feb 1783 St. Helens, Worcester, England for william Stephenson must be incorrect. This was her first marriage with a child born 1774

1. Elizabeth Stephenson was born in 1774; died in 1796.

Notes:

Farmer at Tower of Dalry.
A distant cousin of of the Douglas brothers, William, James, George and Samuel
A descendant of the Ayrshire Covenating family.

Notes:

Ann Carson is described as the sister of Dr McGill by Trotter, in his book East galloway Sketches.

Notes:

farmed in Wigtonshire

William + Jean Heron. Jean (daughter of James Heron and Marion Shaw) was born in 1711; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]