Guy Silversides (1784-1861), the publican at the Greyhound Inn in Riccall, was convicted on 2 March 1824 at the East Riding of Yorkshire Quarter Sessions. His offence, ‘against the conditions of recognizance for the license of an ale house’, resulted in a fine of one guinea with costs of 10 shillings and two pence. The following map shows the location of the Greyhound Inn in Riccall (Ordnance Survey Yorkshire CCVI.II date 1891).
The record from the Quarter Sessions (QSF/463/F/1) provided an insight into the case. A key witness was John Harper junior, an apprentice to Guy. (Guy was also a shoemaker.) John reported that on the evening of the offence, 20 January 1824, four people had played cards in the inn for money. They were his master Guy Silversides, Varley of Cawood, Edward Hawkins, Dowson and Jonathan Romans of Riccall. John saw Jonathan Romans cheating. He suggested that the house was a meeting place for prostitutes and used for gaming. It seems that his master, Guy, had entered his room the following morning, between 5 and 6 am, and ‘struck me twice upon the head’.
Guy, in his defence, asked that the magistrates consider that this was his first offence. It seems that a fellow card player, Jonathan Romans (1791-1858,) had previously been convicted at the Quarter Sessions for using dogs to destroy game in the nearby village of Escrick. His conviction on 17 February 1824 had resulted in a fine of £20 (QSF/463/F/20). Jonathan was described as a farmer from Riccall. A key witness in his trial was the Escrick gamekeeper John Smith. Other witnesses were George Kirk a labourer from Riccall, John Harper of Riccall and Susanna Wellman, a servant of Guy Silversides. Jonathan remained unmarried until his death in the Selby Union Workhouse on 31 January 1858. He was aged 68 and his cause of death was recorded as ‘decay’.
Returning to Guy, my 4th great grandfather; together with his wife Mary Tomlinson (1796-1866), the couple had twelve children. It isn’t clear when Guy gave up the Greyhound Inn. However, in White’s 1840 directory, Guy was recorded as a shoemaker and not the publican at the Greyhound Inn. He continued as a shoemaker in Riccall until at least the 1861 census. Guy died on 11 July 1861 and was buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, Riccall on 14 July 1861.
Finally:
I would like to know more about the people mentioned in this blog post. Do contact me if you have any further information which you are willing to share.
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:
Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2025.
Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2025.
OS Map. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed June 2025.
Quarter Session Records: QSF/463/F/1 and QSF/463/F/20. East Riding Archives.
White, William. (1840) History, Gazetteer and Directory of the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire. Sheffield: Robert Leader. pp. 334-5. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2025.
Yorkshire baptisms, marriages and burials. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed June 2025.
Joan Reid Genealogy 