John Bennett Stephens was born in Cornwall and began his working life as a printer. He moved from Cornwall to London and then to America.
Stephens left New York in 1852 and made his way to the colony of Victoria. He worked initially at the Argus newspaper, and then joined with Messers Mason and Firth in a business in Sandridge. When progress at Sandridge did not meet expectations, Stephens moved to Williamstown and commenced the Trade Circular, soon 're-casting it on more pretentious lines as the Williamstown Chronicle under which guise he successfully conducted it for nearly 25 years'.
Stephens's obituary in the Williamstown Chronicle observes that Stephens, unlike most newspaper journalists in the colony of Victoria, supported the North in the American Civil War: 'his American experience enabled him throughout the conflict to speak with an authority on the question at issue which few colonial journalists possessed'.
Stephens retired from his business pursuits c.1876 due to failing health. He lived in the country for a time and then returned to Melbourne. He was living in Hawthorn at the time of his death.
