James Brunton Stephens was a Scottishborn Australian poet, author of Convict Once.
Stephens was born at Borrowstounness, on the Firth of Forth, Scotland the son of John Stephens, the parish schoolmaster, and his wife Jane, ne Brunton. J. B. Stephens was educated at his fathers school, then at a free boarding school and at the University of Edinburgh from 1849 to 1854 without obtaining a degree. For three years he was a travelling tutor on the continent, and from 1859 became a school teacher in Scotland. While teaching at Greenock Academy, Stephens wrote some minor verse and two short novels which were published in Sharpes London Magazine in 186163.
Source: Wikipedia