ABSTRACT
Robert Stephenson was regarded as the greatest engineer of his time and as a public figure of unimpeachable integrity and sound judgement. However, many of his contemporaries achieved as much without attracting the accolades and admiration of a wider world. According to Jeaffreson, it was his stint in South America with the Colombian Mining Association which began his transformation into a sophisticated establishment figure. He managed to shed his Northumberland accent and also to learn Spanish, as well as continuing to educate himself in mathematics and natural sciences. Judging by the tone of his letters to her, Stephenson was on close and affectionate terms with his stepmother, Elizabeth Hindmarsh, whom his father had married in 1820. When Stephenson arrived home, he flung himself into locomotive development and railway surveying. He also re-established his acquaintance with Fanny Sanderson, daughter of a London merchant.
