Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/164

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account of his own life also. It was printed from Bodleian MS. 39 in Dugdale's ‘Monasticon Anglicanum,’ iii. 544 seq., but is there ascribed to Simon of Warwick. This may be identical with a treatise (which Bale saw at Westminster) called ‘De Reparato Monachatu,’ in which Stephen is said to have recorded the difficulties attending monastic reform in England in the eleventh century.

[Stephen's work (as above), printed in Dugdale's Monast. Angl. iii. 544 seq. See also Pits, De Illustr. Angl. Scriptt p. 189; Bale's Scriptt. Illustr. Cat. i. 167; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 691; Hardy's Cat. ii. 49 sq.]

A. M. C.-e.

STEPHEN, Saint (d. 1134), abbot of Citeaux. [See Harding.]

STEPHEN of Exeter (fl. 1265), is the supposed author of the ‘Annales Domus Montis Fernandi ab anno XLV usque ad annum MCCLXXIV,’ which is contained in a manuscript in the archiepiscopal library at Armagh. He was apparently born in 1246, and entered the Franciscan order at Multyfarnham, Westmeath, in 1263. Other accounts connect him with Strade in Mayo, where there was a house of the Franciscan order, which Jordan of Exeter, lord of Athlethan, or his son Stephen gave to the Dominicans in 1252 (Archdale, Monasticon Hibernicum, p. 509). Stephen of Exeter may have been a member of the family of the lords of Athlethan. He has been claimed both by Dominican and Franciscan bibliographers, and is called Stephen Hibernicus, and, by an obvious error, Stephen of Oxford.

[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 692; Hardy's Descript. Cat Brit. Hist. iii. 207; Quétif and Echard's Script. Ord. Præd. i. 348; Wadding's Scriptt. Ord. Min. p. 218; Sbaralea's Supplementum in Wadding, p. 666.]

C. L. K.

STEPHEN de Gravesend (d. 1338), bishop of London. [See Gravesend.]

STEPHEN Langton (d. 1228), archbishop of Canterbury. [See Langton.]

STEPHEN, Sir ALFRED (1802–1894), chief justice of New South Wales, born at Basseterre, St. Christopher's, on 20 Aug. 1802, was the fourth son of John Stephen (1771–1834), youngest brother of James Stephen (1758–1832) [q. v.] His mother was the daughter of a Mr. Passmore, who lived to the age of ninety-six, and when above ninety could write the Lord's prayer within the compass of a shilling. John Stephen practised law at St. Christopher's, and came to England about 1808 with a fortune, which he lost by buying land at high prices. He returned to St. Christopher's in 1815, and was in 1824 appointed solicitor-general, and in 1825 judge, in New South Wales, and died in 1834.

Alfred was sent to England in 1804 by his mother. He was for a year (1810) at the Charterhouse, and afterwards at schools in Somerset and Devon. He returned with his father to St. Christopher's, where he was a lieutenant in the militia, and read a little law. In 1818 he was sent to London, entered Lincoln's Inn, and became a pupil successively of his cousins Henry John and James Stephen. He was remarkable for vivacity and good humour, which led him into adventures at Vauxhall and elsewhere, but stuck to his law, and was called to the bar 20 Nov. 1823. On 22 June 1824 he married Virginia, daughter of Matthew Consett, and in August sailed for Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). He had been appointed solicitor-general in the colony, which in 1825 was separated from New South Wales. Up to that time it had been mainly a convict settlement under military rule. It was now provided with a legislature, and Stephen took part in framing the new laws and organising courts. The introduction of trial by jury, which he supported, involved a long struggle, but was ultimately effected in 1834. During a visit to England in January 1833 Stephen was appointed attorney-general, and afterwards framed and passed over a hundred statutes, some of which were adopted in other colonies. He was thanked by the lieutenant-governor, (Sir) George Arthur [q. v.], and recommended for advancement. The loss of his wife and a brother in 1837 caused a severe illness, and he resigned his position. He married, in 1838, the daughter of the Rev. W. Bedford, and practised at the bar till in 1839 he was appointed judge of the supreme court of New South Wales. In 1844 he was made chief justice, and held that position until 1873. As a judge he is said to have been distinguished for courtesy and firmness. Though a man of marked humanity, he had a reputation for a severity not undesirable in a population so largely supplied with convicts. He had a main share in impressing a high standard of judicial conduct upon the Australian courts. His retirement was received with strong expressions of sympathy; his colleagues addressed him