Stevens, John ___ 1662c-1726 ___ British ___ civilservant

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Stevens was born in London, the son of a page to Queen Catherine of Braganza. It is assumed his mother was Spanish. He entered into a military career, and accompanied the Second Earl of Clarendon, when he was made lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1685, to Dublin as one of his gentlemen-at-large. Two years later Stevens was appointed collector of taxes at Welshpool, with a brief covering mid-Wales and the borders. As a Catholic and supporter of James II, he was forced to flee after the so-called Glorious Revolution, to France, and then with the Jacobites to Ireland. Before long though, he had taken refuge in Lisbon, Portugal. By 1695, Stevens was back in London, where he settled down to make a living translating Portuguese and Spanish texts. Over the next 30 years or so he published over 20 translations, including a revision of Shelton’s version of Don Quixote. He was also editor of the British Mercury from 1712 to 1715. A diary of his time in Ireland, not published until 1912, is considered valuable as an eyewitness account written by a Jacobite who was not an Irishman.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - The sieges of Limerick

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1689-1691 ___ military Ireland historyeye

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
British Library, Manuscript Collections

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journal of John Stevens containing a brief account of the war in Ireland 1689-1691
 

May 2005, August 2008, April 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.