Hello Ruth
Magnus Stephen who was born 22 March 1761 was the son of John Stephen and Elizabeth/Elspeth Dunnet. They had 3 other children - an unnamed female, 5 June 1757, John 6 May 1759, and William 16 October 1763.
Magnus married Anne Nicol and they had 12 children between 26 January 1795 and 14 May 1816 which included 2 sets of twins. In the Old Parish Register Magnus is recorded as both Steven and Stephen. The recording of births in Dunnet did not begin until 1751, so you will be unable to find a record of John's birth. I didn't find any marriage records either for John or Magnus, but that is not surprising as it was not a legal requirement . I also searched the MI book and found no record of any burials for Magnus in Dunnet. I would think that he died prior to the 1841 census .
In the 1841 census At Lochend there is :
Ann Steven, age 55, cottager
Elizabeth Steven, age 45, Magnus Steven age 35 and James Steven age 30.
In the 1851 census at Lochend
Elizabeth Steven, head, unmarried,crofter aged 54, Magnus Steven, brother, unmarried aged 35 pauper, and James Steven brother, unmarried, aged 34, pauper, all born in Dunnet.
Moving to Bower and George Steven born 13 February 1835. His parents were John Steven and Elizabeth Campbell whose other children were Johanna b.1825, Helen b. 1827, John b.1830, Alexandrina b. 1832.
In the 1841 census John and family are at Stemster Bower and John is listed as an agricultural labourer aged 44. In 1851 census John is a farmer of 10 acres at Stemster and his place of birth is given as Watten with Elizabeth born in Reay. He and Elizabeth are found in 1861, 1871,1881 census all in Bower parish. John died in 1884 at the age of 89 which would give him a birth year of 1795/1796. I searched in Watten but found no record of his birth.
John Steven who is the father of your great grandfather George cannot be the same John Steven who was born in Dunnet in 1797 to Magnus and Anne Steven as Dunnet and Watten are two separate parishes in Caithness.
I am happy to provide more info on any of the above data.
Rosemary
FREEREG Caithness
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