John Riccardo Stephens
Open-knowledge reference entry
John Riccardo Stephens (11 Oct 1827 – 2 September 1912) was a pioneering teacher, preacher and medical doctor in South Australia. His middle name is frequently rendered as "Ricardo".
History
Stephens was born in St Agnes, Cornwall, and was taken at an early age by his parents to New Brunswick, Canada, then in 1831 to Bermuda, where he was educated, strongly influenced by the preacher J. B. Brown, then became himself a teacher and preacher at the time of emancipation of the slaves. In 1850, at age 23, he left for Australia with the rush to the Victorian gold diggings, but had no luck and shortly returned to England.
In 1853 he returned to Australia as chaplain on the emigrant ship Ramillies, landing in Adelaide, and through Rev. J. D. Draper secured a position with the school at One Tree Hill, taking Sunday services at the schoolhouse, while his wife ran a Sunday School. He also preached in the North Adelaide and Gawler circuits.
Two years later he took charge of a school at Burra. As he had some knowledge of medicine, his services were much sought by residents of the district. This led him in 1874 to leave for America to gain medical qualifications.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Riccardo Stephens” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.