STEPHENSON, CLOTWORTHY

Co. Antrim-born carpenter and builder, active in the United States from 1887 onwards.  Clotworthy Stephenson, whose unusual Christian name suggests some sort of connection with the Clotworthy family of Antrim Castle, left Ireland for the United States  at some point between 1785 and May 1786, when he applied for membership of Masonic Lodge No. 3 in Philadelphia.  His movements in the United States can be traced via masonic records, which indicate that he left Philadelphia for Richmond, Virginia, early in 1787.  Although by December of the same year had become involved with a nascent masonic assembly in Annapolis, Maryland, he appears to have continued to work in Richmond until 1793, involved most notably on the construction of the State Capitol,. A move to Washington in 1793 is indicated by the fact that by September of that year he had become an established member of Federal Lodge, Washington, to which body he remained attached until his death in November 1819. 

Clotworthy Stephenson's life and work  has been researched by Thomas M Saharsky (1), whose full biography of Stephenson is  forthcoming..

(1) Thomas M. Saharsky, 'Clotworthy Stephenson,  Lost Son of Virginia' in Philalethes: the Journal of Masonic Research and Letters 73, no. 2 (2020), 50-59, 80-82.  Another shorter account of Stephenson's masonic career by by Thomas Saharsky , 'A Masonic History of Clotworthy Stephenson - an Antrim Freemason',  was published online in 2019  by the Provincial Grand Lodge of  Antrim  https://pglantrim.org/a-masonic-history-of-clotworthy-stephenson-an-antrim-freemason/