Matthew Steen was a descendant of a Scotch Covenanter minister, a refugee from religious persecution, who came into Ireland with Oliver Cromwell and others about 1649, and located first in Killinsky, County Down, and afterward in settled in County Antrim, where his descendants continued for several generations. Matthew Steen was probably the son of Richard Steen (?). He was born in 1755, probably at a place called "The Vow," about eight Irish miles from Coleraine, in County Antrim, Ireland.

For more details, see page 361 "The Steen Family", Second Edition, revised and enlarged, by the Rev. Moses D. A Steen. D. D. published in 1917. I have a copy of this book. My mother, Grace Elizabeth Zimmerman, is listed with her siblings at page 387 in the genealogy of Laura Beatrice Scarritt, for whom I was named. Are there any other Steens who are able to trace their ancestry back to the Steens who were Scotch Covenanters? I recently purchased a video on the Scotch Covenanters and it was very good--although it was mostly centered in Scotland