Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/422

 cousin Robert in the design and construction of the Victoria tubular bridge across the St. Lawrence, completed in 1859, and he built the large railway bridge across the Nile at Kafr Zayat and many smaller fixed and swing bridges at home and abroad. With Robert Stephenson and Bidder he wrote a joint report (London, 1862) to the corporation of Wisbech on improvement of the River Nene; he reported with Sir John Rennie [q. v.] on the River Ouse from Lynn to the Middle Level sluice; and was responsible for the diversion of the river from Lynn to the sea, through Vinegar Middle Sand. For Said Pasha he built at Alexandria a huge bathing palace of iron and glass, the materials alone costing 70,000l.

In 1859, owing to the death of his cousin, he became proprietor of the locomotive-works at Newcastle-on-Tyne, with extensive collieries at Snibston and Tapton. He thereupon gradually relinquished his private practice and personally controlled these works until 1886, when the firm (Robert Stephenson & Co.) was registered as a private limited liability company. Later it was formed into a joint-stock company, of which Stephenson was a director until 1899.

He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 24 May 1853, became a member of the council in 1859, and was president in 1875–7. His presidential address (xliv. 2) was his only contribution to its 'Proceedings,' apart from his share in debates; but he actively fostered the welfare of the institution and helped the extension of its premises in Great George Street in 1868 by presenting his interest in premises at the rear of No. 24.

Stephenson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, and a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. By giving prizes and in other ways he endeavoured to improve the design of the rowing and sailing vessels in use in the Kyles of Bute. His efforts for the general welfare of the district were acknowledged by the freedom of the royal burgh of Rothesay, which was conferred upon him in 1869. Keenly interested in the volunteer movement, he was a lieutenant-colonel of the engineer volunteer staff corps. He wrote, in addition to the presidential address and the reports already mentioned, a pamphlet in the form of a letter to the president of the board of trade on 'High Speeds' (London, 1861), a protest against what he considered excessive speeds on railways. Jointly with J. P. Tone he issued a pamphlet, 'The Firth of Forth Bridge' (London, 1862), in which the bridging of the Forth about 4 miles above Queensferry was advocated.

He died on 26 Oct. 1905 at his home, Hetton Lawn, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham. He married (1) in 1846 Jane (1822-1884), daughter of T. Brown of Whickham, co. Durham; and (2) in 1885 Sarah (d. 1893), younger daughter of Edward Harrison, of co. Durham. He had a family of six children. A life-size portrait in oils by J. Lucas, as well as a three-quarter length portrait, belongs to his son, Mr. F. St. L. Stephenson.

 STERLING, ANTOINETTE, (1843–1904), contralto singer, was born at Sterlingville, New York State, U.S.A., on 23 Jan. 1843. Her father, James Sterling, owned large blasting furnaces, and she claimed descent from William Bradford [q. v.], a pilgrim father. In childhood she imbibed anti-British prejudices, and her patriotic sympathies were so stirred in childhood by the story of the destruction of tea cargoes in Boston harbour, that she resolved never to drink tea, and kept the resolution all her life. She already possessed a beautiful voice of great compass and volume, and took a few singing lessons at the age of eleven from Signor Abella in New York. When she was sixteen her father was ruined by the reduction in 1857 of the import duties in the protective tariff, and died; she went to the state of Mississippi as a teacher, and after a time gave singing lessons. When the civil war broke out her position became very unpleasant, and with another northern girl she fled by night during the summer of 1862, and was guided north by friendly negroes. Afterwards she became a church singer and was engaged in Henry Ward Beecher's church at Brooklyn, where a special throne-like seat was erected for her. In 1868 she came to Europe for further training; she sang at Darlington in Handel's 'Messiah' on 17 Dec, and elsewhere, taking some lessons under W. H. Cummings in London before proceeding to Germany. There she studied under Madame Marchesi and Pauline Viardot-Garcia, and finally under Manuel Garcia in London. In 1871 she returned to America and became a prominent concert singer. Her voice had settled into a true contralto of exceptional power and richness. She came back to England at the beginning of 1873, but almost immediately returned to America, 