Steevens, Richard (c.1654–1710), MD and benefactor, and Grizel (Grizell, Grissell) Steevens (c.1654–1747), heiress, were the twin children of John Steevens (d. 1682), a clergyman from the benefice of Cherill in Calne, Wiltshire, England, and Constance Steevens (d. p.1691). A royalist during the English civil war, John fled to Ireland after 1654 and was appointed vicar of St Mary's, Athlone, shortly after the restoration, serving there till his death.
Richard was educated at the Latin school in Athlone under George Thewles, entered TCD (12 October 1670), and became a scholar (1674). He initially studied divinity, in accordance with his father's wishes, graduated BA (1675) and MA (1678), and took deacon's orders at some stage. He matriculated (1685) to study medicine at the University of Leiden, and later graduated MD (1687) from TCD and began to practise in Dublin. One of fourteen founding fellows of the (R)K&QCPI named in the 1692 royal charter, he served as censor in 1694 (and on six subsequent occasions), as registrar (1700), and twice as president (1703, 1710).
Appointed (9 September 1710) by the TCD board as professor of physic, Steevens was succeeded by Thomas Molyneux (qv), who boasted that he had spent more money than Steevens had ever earned (Dublin University Magazine, xvii, 763.) Despite little record remaining of Steevens's medical career, he generated considerable wealth and was able to purchase an estate of 2,237 acres in King's Co. (Offaly) in June 1709 for £7,285, as well as another 666 acres in Co. Westmeath in July 1710 for £3,000. Steevens died unmarried on 15 December 1710 at his home in William St., Dublin, having made his will in favour of his sister the previous day, after gaining her assurance that she did not intend to marry. He was buried the following evening at St Peter's church, Dublin.
Madame Grizel Steevens, as she was commonly known, inherited the bulk of her brother's estate. He intended any residue on her death to be used to found and run a hospital for the sick and the poor in Dublin. She retained £100 a year from the annual £600 income generated, and surrendered the estate to trustees (1717), seeking to effect her brother's wishes in her own lifetime. Initial hopes of a land and monetary grant from Queen Anne never came to fruition; the five trustees, notably Archbishop William King (qv) and Thomas Burgh (qv), were encouraged in this by James Butler (qv), 2nd duke of Ormond.
Burgh provided draft plans for the project in early 1718, with work beginning the following year. Another trustee, Edward Worth (qv), who later bequeathed his extensive library to the hospital, was instructed to obtain plans of St Thomas's Hospital in London. Although it is unclear if he ever did so, the adoption of a quadrangular layout alongside wards over rooms, as in London, suggests some influence from this quarter. A private act of parliament (1730) incorporated the trustees, whose numbers Grizel augmented in 1717. After later work had been supervised by Edward Lovett Pearce (qv) (briefly a governor from 1732), a total of £16,000 was spent before the hospital finally opened on 3 July 1733 with eighty-seven beds, to be apportioned on a non-denominational basis to need. The first public hospital founded in Dublin, it remained preeminent through the century as building work continued; the chapel was not completed till 1761, while the top story remained unfinished in 1785.
Residing in an apartment in the hospital complex, Grizel devoted the remainder of her life to helping the poor of Dublin. On her death on 18 March 1747, she left her estate to the governors of the hospital. Her remains were interred in the hospital chapel. The hospital was closed in 1987.