3-070-929 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

George Stephenson, the Father of Railways: Stephenson and his wife going home on their wedding day, 1881. 'On Nov. 28, 1802, George Stephenson married Fanny Henderson at Newburn church. After the ceremony, he and his wife went to pay their respects to George's father and mother at Jolly's Close. Old Stephenson was still an engine fireman. From Jolly's Close George took his wife home to Wellington Quay, where he was employed as brakesman. He had saved enough money to furnish a cottage in a very humble manner, and thither he and his bride journeyed in the pretty old fashion of saddle and pillion. Robert Gray and Anne Henderson were their companions on this occasion. George and Fanny were on one horse, Fanny with her arms round George's waist; and Robert and Anne followed, similarly mounted. They rode for fifteen miles'. Illustration published in a special supplement to celebrate the centenary of the birth of British civil engineer and mechanical engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848). From "Illustrated London News", 1881.