William Stephens (glassmaker)

William Stephens (16 May 1731 – 11 May 1803) was an English entrepreneur and glass manufacturer who made a fortune in Portugal manufacturing lime after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and then operating the Portuguese Royal Glassworks. He was a brilliant organiser, intelligent and charismatic, and he charmed dictators, queens and princes to become one of the richest industrialists in Europe.

Stephens was the illegitimate son of Oliver Stephens, a schoolmaster in Cornwall, and Jane Smith a servant girl from the Pentillie estate. He was brought up by his grandparents at Pillaton. His father was trapped in a childless marriage, and had to move to Exeter but kept in touch with his son. When his wife died in 1743 Oliver Stephens married Jane Smith and had a larger family so that William Stephens was several years older than his siblings. He was educated in Exeter Free Grammar School and in 1746 went to Portugal where his Uncle John Stephens was a merchant.

English merchants in Lisbon were in a privileged position with exemptions from local tax and regulations. Stephens was signed on for seven years apprenticeship, but his uncle's business failed and he was taken as a partner on by a successful merchant George Medley. At this time Carvallho was starting his rise to power and began getting into disputes with the English merchants. Then in 1755 the earthquake occurred which destroyed Lisbon and much of the English commercial activity. Carvalho, however, enhanced his power by taking control of the situation.

Stephens recognised that there would soon be an urgent demand for building materials, and saw a way in which he could make more lime by using anthracite waste (culm) shipped from England, than the Portuguese could by using wood which was in short supply. As an unknown Englishman, he succeeded in getting an interview with Carvalho who was immediately enthusiastic about the idea. There was a difficult start as his English contact first sent the wrong sort of coal, and then the cargo ships were captured by the French. However Stephens rode these difficulties and was also helped by the passing of the Culm Act by the British Parliament in 1758 which exempted the material from duty. Stephens became a close and trusted friend of the Portuguese Dictator, but for a number of reasons including economic depression and by rival Portuguese lime manufacturers he was unable to sell enough lime and was on the verge of bankruptcy by 1762. It was at this time that his three brothers and a sister were shipped out to join him in Portugal. With Carvalho's assistance the business recovered and was in full production by 1769. In the meantime Stephens had come under pressure from the King Dom Jose and his minister Francisco Xavier de Mendonca to reopen and operate the royal glassworks factory in the village of Marinha Grande which had fallen into disuse.

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