John Horne Stevenson, MBE
Arms: Argent a chevron Azure between three falcons’ heads erased Gules
SOURCE, NOTES & CREDITS: NOTE: We discovered we had made a mistake and originally put up the wrong arms granted to Alan Stevenson, C.E. No. 1046, page 70, 1865, not directly related to J.H.S.; instead of those of Alexander Stevenson, his uncle. dqw 20100430
Source for blazon: Entry 713, page 49, “Ordinary of Scottish Arms”, Volume 1, second edition of 1903, for Alexander Stevenson ( 1891).
We especially wish to thank and acknowledge Carrick Pursuivant and Lyon Clerk & Keeper of the Records, Mrs. C.G.W. Roads, MVO, for assisting us by unearthing Stevenson’s arms, he had never matriculated them, as he didn’t need to, being the direct heir of his uncle through his father and for giving us genealogical information on this Stevenson family. Source for illustration: none other than the blazon. Source for text: BLG, 1937, 15th edition, page xliii and BP 2003 107th edition, page 3730 ( whose entry for Lord Stevenson is extremely sparse, no arms given and verra little genealogy), etc.
John Horne Stevenson, born on 2 July 1855, was a KC & Advocate and a Knight of Justice in the Order of St. John ( Venerable Order ) and appointed Unicorn Pursuivant 23 May 1902, made an MBE in 1918, he was appointed Marchmont Herald on 26 March 1925. He was a member of the Royal Company of Archers, the King’s Body Guard for Scotland. He was also an author of a number of books amongst which are: “The Ruthven of Freeland Peerage and its Critics”, 1905, his best known two volume set of “Heraldry in Scotland”, 1914, a copy of which he inscribed to his cousin, Miss Marguerite Wood in 1914 and which she annotated in her own hand with the date of his death as obiit 23 Januarii 1939 on the title page. And, the monumental, perhaps definitive, three volume set of “Scottish Heraldic Seals”, 1940. After the death of William Rae MacDonald in 1923, his chief collaborator in this work became Marguerite Wood, Ph.D. later Keeper of the Burgh Records of the City of Edinburgh. It was she who finally got “Scottish Heraldic Seals” published in a limited edition of 38 copies after the death of Stevenson in 1940.
John Horne Stevenson made a lasting contribution to the Heraldry of Scotland and died unmarried at age 84 on 11 January 1939.
He was succeeded in arms by third brother, the Rev. William Black Stevenson and today, these arms are borne, undifferenced, by his grand nephew, Lord Stevenson of Coddenham.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor
2018 0928
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