Your PM says that the last fact about which you can be reasonably confident is that when William Stephens married in 1856 his father was listed as Samuel Stephens, a land surveyor. You have now come across a Samuel Stephens, land surveyor, who moved to New Zealand in 1841, so you are trying to establish whether they are the same man.
The New Zealand Samuel seems likely to have come from the Dorset family: a fairly wealthy family. Your Samuel's son married the daughter of a shoemaker in Manchester. My feeling is that they are different families, but I can see why you would want to follow up the NZ family. It may be worth trying to find his wife, Sarah, who returned to England in 1856 when Samuel died. Perhaps she appears on a ship's lists with her children listed, although no children are mentioned in any of his biographies. It might be worth posting on a relevant board here. Sarah was 30 when she arrived in New Zealand in 1842 with no children.
Meanwhile I would continue to focus on Manchester. At least two Samuels are listed as marrying there:
1817: Samuel Stephens, 23 m Caroline Bowes, 26 they had a child, Mariah, in 1818, but that leaves quite a gap until 1834.
1826: Samuel Stephens m Jane Capper. They had Elizabeth, 1829 and John Harris, 1828; but he was described as a painter in 1826.
Richard
