After he retired in 1854 the family moved to Edinburgh shortly before Mrs Stevenson died, and in 1859 they settled in a house in Randolph Crescent, where they spent the rest of their lives.

Louisa, Flora, Elisa Stevenson (1829–1904), an early suffragist, and founding member of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage,[3] which Louisa and Flora also joined, but sister Jane Stevenson (1828–1904), although a strong influence within the family but did not participate in her sisters' activities beyond the home and Eliza was said to be of delicate health.

She also contributed to education by co-founding the Edinburgh School of Cookery at Atholl Crescent, with Christian Edington Guthrie Wright.

She believed that women's qualifications for helping with hospital management were equal to men's though each sex might bring somewhat different experience to the task.

The British Journal of Nursing attributed her success in everything she did to her "genial courtesy", "indomitable perseverance" and a "thorough grasp of the subject in hand".