In family life Mr. Stevenson was a man of sterling worth. As a husband, a father, and a friend, he was remarkably distinguished by the absence of selfishness. His exertions in forwarding the progress of young men through life were generous and unwearied; and few men had more solid grounds than he for indulging in the pleasing reflection that, both in his public and private capacity, he had consecrated to beneficial ends every talent committed to his trust.
He was a man of sincere and unobtrusive piety; and although warmly attached to the Established Church of Scotland, of which for nearly forty years he had been an elder, and for many years a member of the General Assembly, he had no taint of bigotry or of party feeling, and he died calmly in that blessed hope and peace which only an indwelling personal belief in the merits of a Redeemer can impart to any son of our race.
At a statutory general meeting of the Board of Northern Lighthouses, which was held on the 13th July 1850, the day after my father’s death, the Commissioners recorded their respect for his talents and virtues in the following Minute:--
“The Secretary having intimated, that Mr. Robert Stevenson, the late Engineer to the Board, died yesterday morning,
“The Board, before proceeding to business, desire to record, their regret at the death of this zealous, faithful, and able officer, to whom is due the honour of conceiving and executing the great work of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, whose services were gratefully acknowledged on his retirement from active duty, and will be long remembered by the Board, and to express their sympathy with his family on the loss of one who was most estimable and exemplary in all the relations of social and domestic life. The Board direct that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to Mr. Stevenson’s family, and communicated to each Commissioner, to the different lightkeepers and the other officers of the Board.”
An old writer mentions a curious tradition, which may be worth quoting. “By east the Isle of May,” says he, “twelve miles from all land in the German Seas, lyes a great hidden rock, called Inchcape, very dangerous for navigators, because it is overflowed everie tide. It is reported in old times, upon the saide rock there was a bell, fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice to the saylers of the danger. This bell or clocke was put there and maintained by the Abbot of Aberbrothok, and being taken down by a sea pirate, a yeare therafter he perished upon the same rocke, with ship and goodes, in the righteous judgement of God.”--STODDART’S _Remarks on Scotland_.