Notices concerning Oxnam Parish. By J. Hardy. 113 



lion between the brothers and their kinsfolk on the Scotch side, was kept 

 up for many years, not by letters but by verbal messages committed to the 

 packmen, and men bringing coals from Newcastle over the Borders, on 

 the backs of ponies, (B). For a long number of years no correspondence 

 has taken place between the families, but Harry states that his brother 

 William, who is alive, wrought a considerable time in the work shop of 

 the Stephensons, but did not make himself known to anyone there as a 

 relation. Harry and his family have lived at different places in the parish, 

 viz., Braeheads, (C), Bnrnfoot, Burnmonth, Newbigging Cottages. I saw 

 an extract from Oxnam Session Records of this old man's birth in 177<j, 

 and from what the Stephensons say, the Records, now in Edinbnrgh, seem 

 to contain information concerning the different families." 



Mit Simson's Commkxts. 



A. " Situated near the present hind's house, in the field before my house 

 here, the remains of which I have had carted away, and known to my 

 brother and sisters who remember it quite well, as it has been pulled down 

 within the last 50 years. Harry's father was a well known character, and 

 tailor for all the parish, so this goes back for fully 100 years." 



B. " This I have often heard my father speak about. You would see 

 forty all in a line coming past Bloodylaws as they kept to a trail across the 

 hills." 



C. " Braeheads seems to be a new name for Brow House, and the place 

 is still called the Swallow-brae Heads." J. S. 



Having informed my friend Mr Jerdan, Dalkeith, brother-in- 

 law of Dr Smiles, and himself of Oxnam Water descent, of the 

 conversation I had had with Mr Simson on the subject of the 

 earliest of his relative's popular books, he took immediate 

 measures to verify the facts by consulting the Oxnam Parish 

 Eegisters in H.M. Eegister House, and by summoning to his 

 aid the Eev. J. "W. Pringle, Jedburgh, the minister of Henry 

 Stephenson, all the information that he was in possession of, was 

 elicited. Mr Jerdan has informed me that Dr Smiles is satisfied 

 with the accuracy of the statements, as well as greatly pleased, 

 and will pay due attention to them in any future edition of the 

 "Life of George Stephenson." 



Family or G-eorge and Eobert Stephenson, Engineers. 



Henry or Harry Stephenson, and his sisters, presently, (1885), living at 

 Hundalee, near Jedburgh, say that their father, Henry or Harry Stephen- 

 son, was born at Oxnam Row Braehead or Browhead, on the 24th Nov., 

 1776. He was a tailor to trade, and to my personal knowledge a most 

 respectable man, for I remember him well by sight and reputation, having 

 often seen him upwards of fifty years ago. He was a full cousin of George 

 Stephenson, the celebrated Engineer. Both were descended from 



Henry Stephenson, orSteenson, shepherd at Riccalton, then spelt 



