Many of my ancestors worked on the land either as husbandmen or agricultural/field labourers, so when I find someone with a different occupation, I am always keen to write about them. The butler in my family was John Silversides ((1846-1833), my second cousin five times removed. He was born in Naburn, Yorkshire to parents Robert Silversides (1809-1898) and Hannah Waites (1815-1894). Robert was a farm labourer born in nearby Riccall and Hannah was from Kelfield.
The village of Naburn is located on the River Ouse about 4 miles south of the city of York. In the 19th century it was described by Lewis in his topographical directory as consisting of “2720 acres of rich land, two-thirds arable and the remainder meadow”. Just one of Robert and Hannah’s sons, William, remained a farm labourer in Naburn. Not only did John take up a different occupation but so did his brothers Thomas and Matthias. Thomas became a police officer; he died at the age of 91, a retired inspector of police, in Malton. Matthias worked on the railways in York.
John was first recorded as a domestic servant, butler, at Bell Hall, Naburn in 1871 where he worked for the Baines family; they had inherited the estate in the 18th century. He was still working as a butler there when he married Eliza Palfreeman (born about 1849) on 26 May 1873 in St Mary Bishophill Senior church in York. Prior to her marriage Eliza was working as a parlour maid in Bootham in York.
John and Eliza went on to have two daughters: Laura Annie Silversides born 4 August 1875 in Wheldrake and Edith Silversides born 20 January 1877 in Naburn. In both cases John was described as a butler (domestic servant); he was also the person who registered Laura’s birth. His father Robert registered Edith’s birth, which suggested that Eliza was living with him and his wife when she gave birth.
In the 1881 census the family were living together in “Jefferson Lodge” in Wheldrake, close to the boundary with the nearby village of Thorganby. The census record is blurred but it seems likely that this dwelling was on the northern side of Thicket Priory, owned by the Dunnnington-Jefferson family in the 19th century. They were probably John’s employers. Lewis’ 1848 topographical directory described Thicket Hall in his entry for Thorganby.
The following extracts from the OS map for Yorkshire sheet 192, dated 1854, show the position of the lodge and Thicket Priory.
The 1881 census is the last record which I’ve found for the family as a whole. John died on 5 August 1883 in 35 Cleveland St, St Mary Bishophill, York of pernicious anaemia. His death was reported by Isabella Lewins, the wife of a railway guard. John’s brother Matthias, a railway worker, had married his second wife on 10 February 1883, giving his address as Cleveland St. It seems likely that John died at his brother’s house. What isn’t clear was where his wife Eliza was when he died. By 1891 their two daughters Laura and Edith were pupils at St Stephen’s Orphanage, Trinity Lane, York. I’m planning a visit to the Borthwick Institute in York to find out more about their time there. So far, I haven’t been able to find out what happened to their mother Eliza. Do let me know if you have any stories about the family which you are willing to share with me.
Note: the map used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.
Bibliography:
Bell Hall image – Track to Bell Hall by J Thomas, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons : accessed May 2024.
Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed May 2024.
Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed May 2024.
Lewis, Samuel ed. (1848) A Topological Directory of England. London: Lewis. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england : accessed May 2024.
OS Map. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed May 2024.
Yorkshire baptisms, marriages and burials. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed May 2024.
Joan Reid Genealogy 