JOSEPH STEVENSON. - Jesuit, historian, and archivist, born at Berwick-on-Tweed (Scotland) on 27 Nov. 1866, died in London on 18 Feb. 1895.
An Anglican pastor from 1839 to 1863, he was actively engaged in the research and publication of documents relating to the Church of Scotland and England; after the establishment of the *Public Record Office* in 1877, he was among the first writers and editors appointed there and published 7 volumes for the *Rolls Series*, 7 volumes of *Calendars of State Papers, Foreign Series of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1558-65*; and 2 volumes of the *Scottish Series*. Meanwhile, he abjured his former faith and was received into the Catholic Church (1863), and after the death of his wife in 1869, he entered the Ossett Seminary and was ordained priest in 1872. From that year until 1877 he was entrusted by the government with the task of researching documents for the *Roman Transcripts* series of the *Public Record Office* in the Vatican Archives. Finally, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1877 at the age of 72, and after completing his novitiate, he continued his research. His principal work in these last years was the discovery and publication of *Life of Mary Queen of Scots* by Claude Nau, with the addition of documents from the Vatican Archives (Edinburgh 1883), as well as *Life of Jane Dormer* (London 1887), *Life of St. Cuthbert* (ibid. 1887), and a considerable number of articles in the periodical *The Month*.