Researching John Stephens

Stephens was married to All-American college swimmer Sybil Smith. Their daughter Sloane Stephens, born in 1993, is a professional tennis player who won the 2017 US Open women's singles title. Their son John Stephens Jr. played football at Texas Christian University.

Stephens was killed in a car accident in Keithville, Louisiana on September 1, 2009.

Born in Shelby County, Texas, Stephens attended the common schools in Mansfield, Texas. He graduated from Mansfield College, and from the law department of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1872. After gaining admission to the bar in 1873, he practiced in Montague, Montague County, and Vernon, Wilbarger County, Texas. He served as a member of the Texas State Senate from 1886 to 1888, and then resumed the practice of law in Vernon, Texas.

Stephens was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth and to the nine succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1917). He served as chair of the Committee on Indian Affairs (Sixty-second through Sixty-fourth Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916.

He moved to Monrovia, California, in 1917, and died there November 18, 1924. He was interred in East View Cemetery, Vernon, Texas. Stephens County, Oklahoma, was named for him.

Stephens was a goal kicking rover and after managing eleven majors in a VFA game for Sandringham was picked up by St Kilda.

He played the first six games of the 1971 VFL season before succumbing to a thigh injury which would keep him out of the side for the rest of the year. St Kilda made the Grand Final that year. He was St Kilda Football Clubs leading goalkicker in 1972 and participated in the finals series, but again missed out on playing in the decider when Carlton defeated the Saints in the Preliminary Final, on the back of a seven-goal effort from Alex Jesaulenko.

A consistent performer up forward, only four times in his league career did he fail to kick a goal in a game. He topped St Kilda's goal-kicking in 1972 with 53 goals, including four in their Elimination Final win over Essendon.

As a cricketer, Stephens was a left-handed middle order batsman and appeared in a total of four first-class matches in the 1970/71 and 1971/72 Sheffield Shield seasons. On his debut against Queensland at the MCG he made his highest score of 48 in the second innings. Stephens finished his career with a disappointing 123 runs at 15.37. He had played with fellow VFL footballers Peter Bedford, John Scholes and Max Walker.

Stephens was the second son of Thomas Stephens of Little Sodbury, Gloucestershire and was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1620 he entered the Middle Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1628, and practised law in Elm Court. He was the brother of Edward Stephens.

Stephens inherited from his father Lypiatt House in the neighbourhood of Bisley. The house was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops during the Civil War but partially set on fire during a Royalist attack under Sir Jacob Astley, who was later forced to make good the damage from his own assets.

Stephens was elected Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury in the Long Parliament in 1645. In 1659 he was elected MP for Gloucestershire in the Third Protectorate Parliament. In April 1660, he was elected MP for Bristol in the Convention Parliament.

Stephens married four times: Elizabeth Ram of Essex, Grace, the daughter of John Brown of Frampton, Dorset, Anne, the daughter of John and sister and co-heir of Thomas Moulson of Hargrave, Cheshire, and Hester, daughter and co-heir of Mr Barnes of Alborough Hatch in Barking, Essex. He was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who was MP for Gloucestershire in 1695.

After a term at Christ College, Brecon and then completion of secondary school at Dulwich College, Stephens matriculated in 1884 at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating there with B.A. in 1887. He received his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital, receiving there M.B. and B.Chir. in 1893 and D.P.H. in 1894.

Stephens held in 1895–1886 a Sir Trevor Lawrence research studentship in pathology and bacteriology at St Bartholomew's Hospital and in 1897 a John Lucas Walker research studentship in pathology at Cambridge. He became in 1897 an Assistant Bacteriologist to the Government of India. In 1898–1902 he was a member of the Royal Society's malaria commission in Africa and India. At Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine he was from 1903 to 1913 the Walter Myers Lecturer in Tropical Medicine and, as the successor to Sir Ronald Ross, from 1913 to 1928 the Alfred Jones Professor of Tropical Medicine. In World War I he was a malaria consultant with rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Army Medical Corps. He was a member of the Colonial Medical Research Committee in 1927 and the president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1927–1928.

Stephens and H. B. Fantham did pioneering work on sleeping sickness and were the first to distinguish Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense from Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (although they called T. brucei gambiense and T. brucei rhodesiense by the names T. gambiense and T. rhodesiense, respectively — contrary to contemporary taxonomy).

There are several species of the protozoan parasite Plasmodium that cause malaria in humans. One such species, namely Plasmodium ovale, was first described in 1914 by Stephens in a blood sample taken from a patient in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh in the autumn of 1913.

He married in 1901 and was the father of two sons.