William Stevenson (Scottish writer)
William Stevenson (1772–1829) was a Scottish nonconformist preacher, tutor and official, now known as a writer and father of Elizabeth Gaskell.[1] For a short time he preached at Dob Lane Chapel, Failsworth, where he was the successor of Lewis Loyd the banker.Uglow identifies him, in the early 1820s, in the sketch from Recollections of Literary Characters of Katherine Thomson devoted to John Galt, as a taciturn man of letters who was a good listener.[1] Generally Stevenson was a critic of the political economy of the period, finding it inconsistent and theoretical, lacking experimental foundation.[13] Eliza Stevenson died in 1810, and in 1814 William married Catherine, daughter of Alexander Thomson of Savannah, Georgia.