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Although the family history has been tracked back to Cornwall, England, and a coat of arms presented by King Henry the 8^th, this is the family web page for the Brent Stephens Family, who are now residing in Trophy Club (between Fort Worth and Dallas), Texas, USA since March 1993.

Brent's father is William Kent Stephens, born and raised in East London, South Africa, and died in Port Alfred, South Africa from mesothelioma in December 15, 2000. "Bill" married married Pamela Hide and had two children, Linda Lee Stephens and Brent William Stephens (yours truly). The Hide family can be tracked back to Norway where two brothers of the name Hide-Andersen emigrated - one to South Africa who apparently took the Hide part of the name and the other to the United States where he took the Andersen part of the name.

Linda married Nic Heideman, Mathematics Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa and taught Mathematics at Kingswood College in Grahamstown, South Africa before going back to University to study Chemistry where she is currently busy with a Phd in Neuro Pharmacology. She has two children, Paul - third year at Rhodes University and Vicky a first year. Both excel in academics, sport and music.

Brent married Dianne May Tester in 1997 and after a stint as a social worker moved in Personnel Recruiting, and owned Personnel Management Recruiters for 5 years in Johannesburg before moving to Dallas, Texas in 1993. He owned a management consulting company, Consulting Expertise Corporation. for a number of years before joining Morgan Stanley as a Financial Advisor and in 2002 joined Legacy Consulting in a project management role. Brent and Dee divorced in March 2002. They share custody of their two boys, William and Jason Stephens who do well in academics and sport, both excelling in soccer (where dad is the coach).

For the geneologically curious, the name William Kent Stephens was tracked back a few generations by my sister and she got as far as St. Ives in Cornwall, England. I went to St. Ives and from discussions with local residents found out that a ship from Ireland had apparently come over and wrecked on the coast carrying three familes: Stephens, Quick and Painter - these are now the most common names in the area, and there is Tregenna Castle - a castle of sorts on the hill (now apparently in time share, as a hotel looked more like a manor house to me...) The Stephens name has been spelt many different ways, there is also folklore that it originated from the town St. Ives itself. The Stephens is also commonly spelt as Stevens, and the different spelling forms apparently go back to the days when only scribes could write, so they would write it as it sounded, and some wrote it Stephens, while others wrote it Stevens. The residents of St. Ives apparently introduce themselves as "Stephens with a ph" or "Stevens with a v" depending on how it is spelt. The names Stephenson or Stevenson are apparently also related, standing for "son of Stephens". The coat of arms was created by a heraldry professional in Johannesburg from the description that he found in Burke's General Armory of Great Britain, I have found it more recently slightly different and with different colors for the spelling "Stevens" - whether that is by accident or design I could not tell you.

Rick Parsons (see links page) reports some history of Tregenna Castle that he gained from a brochure of the Castle (now a Hotel). In their brief history they say

"Tregenna Castle takes its name from the hill on which it stands. Its early inhabitants probably chose the location because it provided a superb vantage point for observing potential raiders and marauders. The building has a fairy-tale quality to it.

"It became a home to Samuel Stephens in 1774 and during this period substantial building work took place. Constructed of local granite, the house consisted of twelve bedrooms and in 1844, a further ten were added. The turrets which lend much distinction to the imposing building were added later as an afterthought.

"The Stephens family lived at Tregenna for a comparatively short time and in 1888 the Bolitho family of Bankers acquired the property.

"In 1887 the railway branch line from St. Erth to St. Ives was opened and the town soon started to receive the advanced guard of visitors and the Board of the Great Western Railway decided to rent Tregenna Castle for the purpose of establishing a hotel in St. Ives and a forty two year lease was signed. Many alterations were carried out, providing facilities for billiards, croquet, lawn tennis, archery and cricket - all within the grounds.

"GWR purchased the property in 1882 [sic], but any further development did not start in earnest until 1923. By 1932 the west wing consisting of forty nine rooms was completed, bringing the total number to ninety, as at the present.

"It was not until 1929 that plans for the golf course were finally approved and work commenced.
...
"Tregenna Castle has played host to many prominent visitors. One notary was Herr von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador to Great Britain before the Second World War. It was a widely held belief that St. Ives would never be bombed, because Hitler has promised Tregenna to von Ribbentrop as a personal residence after Germany had conquered Great Britain."

On the Stephens family, Rick reports:
The Stephens family originally lived in the middle of St. Ives. The mansion house was described as Tregenna Place and Fore Street and may have been quite extensive to link these two roads together - in 1871

"The MANSION HOUSE in Tregenna Place and Fore Street (a capital old-fashioned stone-built residence), with ground floor and one floor above, now used as the office of the estate, and as the dwelling house of the baliff or sub-manager; with front garden and also a kitchen garden and summer house and premises on the other side of Fore Street"

From the extensive listing for the sale it is evident that the Stephens owned a good proportion of St. Ives.

When Rick was asked if he could comment on the spelling of Stephens / Stevens and the Irish legend - he replied as follows:
"There was great rivalry between the STEPHENS and STEVENS of St. Ives. (it comes from the Saint - Stephen as a Christian name, not a misspelling if St. Ives). The ones who spell it with the PH are from the gentry family and won't have anything to do with the ones with a V who were artisans. Don't ever get the spelling wrong . The distinction was not so marked in other towns even nearby. In practice, people spelled it however they felt like (or someone else wrote it) but there were very few PH in St. Ives itself as can be seen from the census.

"The three families from Ireland legend is strong and almost certainly has some basis in fact, possibly soon after the arrival of the Saints (including Ia herself) in the C5th - it will never be proved though. Surnames did not become widely established until C14th, possibly later in these Celtic parts as can be seen in Wales."

Guess I need to stop teasing the friends who spell their name with "the lazy "V"!