He was born on 28 November 1835 at Clerkenwell, London, to Isaac Thomas and Anna (née Morgan) Stevens and was baptised at the Parish Church of St Luke, London, on 5 June 1836.
Stevens was a Reformed Episcopal Church of England presbyter until the year 1879.
He was consecrated on 6 March 1879 by Richard Williams Morgan assisted by Frederick George Lee and John Thomas Seccombe of the Order of Corporate Reunion.
[1] According to the Anglican Free Communion, Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR) bishops assisted Morgan at the 6 March 1879 consecration.
[2] This is disputed, however, by Henry Brandreth who (writing in 1947) considered that "it is very unlikely, however, that any of the OCR bishops performed a consecration" of Stevens.