Joseph Stevens

Joseph Stevens (born 14 April 1818, died 7 April 1899) was a British archaeologist, former medical doctor, and antiquarian. Stevens was a significant contributor to the archaeological field and is noted for being the first curator of Reading Museum. Stevens died in St Mary Bourne, Hampshire, at the age of 81. Personal life Stevens was born in Stanmore, Berkshire to a yeoman farmer. Little more is known about the identity of his parents. Prior to medical school, he inherited a small sum from his uncle which was to be put toward his education. Originally training as a chemist, Stevens subsequently trained at the Middlesex Hospital, London, qualifying as a surgeon. Stevens then moved to St Mary Bourne, Hampshire, a parish 3 miles from Whitchurch, to work as the village doctor (1844–1879) where he met and married Mary Laura Longman in 1854, the daughter of William Longman. Upon his retirement in 1879, Stevens moved to Reading, Berkshire as a widower to pursue his archaeological and geological interests. Medical career Stevens' success in the field of medicine, and his philanthropy, has been well recorded in John Isherwoods' Dr Joseph Stevens of St Mary Bourne (2015). Isherwood examines Stevens' work at St Mary Bourne, which at the time was a poor rural parish, at a time where Victorian public health reformers and legislation were being continuously improved.