Stephenson, ROBERT, only son of George Stephenson, by his first wife, was born at Willington Quay on 16th October 1803. When a boy he attended a school in Newcastle; in 1819 he was apprenticed to a coalviewer at Killingworth. In 1822 his father's improving circumstances enabled him to send Robert to the university of Edinburgh, where he remained six months, and made excellent use of his time. In 1823 we find him assisting his father in the survey for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Subsequently he took an active part in the locomotive engine-works started by his father at Newcastle. In June 1824 he went to Colombia, in South America, on an engineering appointment, but returned at the end of three years. He then assumed the management of the Newcastle business. During the discussion as to the power to be employed on the Liverpool and Manchester line, he was in constant communication with his father, to whom his quick perception and rapid judgment were of great assistance. The result was the successful construction of the 'Rocket.' Shortly after the completion of this line he was appointed engineer of the Leicester and Swannington Railway. Subsequently he was appointed joint-engineer, along with his father, of the London and Birmingham line, the execution of which immense work was ultimately almost wholly entrusted to him. In 1829 he married Frances, daughter of John Sanderson, merchant in London. She died in 1842 without issue. The London and Birmingham line was completed in such a manner as to raise Stephenson to the very highest rank in his profession. Amongst his great achievements were the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges, the Victoria Bridge across the St Lawrence at Montreal, the two bridges across the Nile at Damietta, the Royal Border Bridge, Berwick, and the High Level Bridge, Newcastle, several of which are described at BRIDGE, Vol. II. pp. 440-1. In 1847 he was returned to the House of Commons as member for Whitby. He was the recipient of many honours from abroad, and was much consulted about foreign railways. He died on 12th October 1859, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Robert Stephenson inherited the kindly spirit and benevolent disposition of his father, to whom he was ever ready to attribute the chief merit of his own achievements. 'It was his thorough training,' he once said, 'his example, and his character which made me the man I am.'
See Smiles's Story of the Life of George Stephenson (1857) and Lives of the Engineers, vol. v., and J. C. Jeaffreson's Life of Robert Stephenson (2 vols. 1864).