www.925-1000.com

Arthur Grimwade wrote his great work 'London Goldsmiths - 1697-1837 - Their Marks & Lives' in 1976.
It has now been over twenty years since the last revised and enlarged 3rd edition was published and a considerable amount of further information is now available. This forum is intended to be an addendum to Grimwades' previously published biographical data and it is our hope that members will be able to post additional facts that directly expand on that data. Posts should be restricted to silversmiths who have registered marks at Goldsmiths' Hall, or may be presumed to have had them in the Lost Registers. Even seemingly trivial data may well be of future use.

Please make your post in the same style as adopted by Grimwade, i.e. the surname of the silversmith followed by the forename, followed by the biographies page number and addenda page number (if any). If the silversmith in question appears only in the 'Goldworkers', 'Smallworkers', ‘Bucklemakers' etc. sections, and who therefore do not have an existing biography, then please apply the page number where their details are to be found. Always remember to include a checkable source from where your information was acquired. All page references should be to the 1990, 3rd edition. For anyone working with one of the earlier editions, you can still post your information and the page numbers will be adjusted by a moderator.
If information or conclusions are in any way speculative, please show as "almost certainly ", “probably” , “perhaps” or “possibly”.

It must be stressed that only additional information should be posted, a repetition of Grimwades’ information is not required unless to make sense of the additions.

Once a topic has been started for a silversmith, just add your information to that thread.

One source not available to Grimwade was the National Archives index of wills probated at the Perogative Court Of Canterbury.
We have a list of most of those relating to silversmiths, goldsmiths etc at
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... ilit=wills
which also gives similar data of wills proved at the Diocese Of London Consistory Court

The whole of the PROB files can be searched at
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/wills.htm

Wills from the National Archives can be downloaded as Pdf or JEPG files for slightly under £3.50 per will .
Diocese Of London Consistory Court wills can be bought by post from LMA and their service is good.

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone downloading a silversmiths will could contact Buckler to either send a copy ( probably prohibited) or a précis . Thanks.

The Bidwell entry today completes the information found by myself to update the biographies.
My thanks to Pat (Silverly) for his work on finding information I couldn't and to Trev (Dognose) for waving a magic computer wand to correct the odd typing error before the reader took as gospel what had actually been written.
The additional information mainly came from Ancestry.co.uk website.
As more information becomes available on the web hopefully the bones of these updated biographies can be fleshed out (and where appropriate corrected!) and further ones added.

Mike

MARKS IMAGES
Grimwade does not always provide images of all marks.

Certain categories are excluded completely e.g Bucklemakers, Incuse etc
Some marks are only noted as "similar marks dated ....."
Some of the marks actually illustrated are not very well reproduced.

If anyone has a good, properly identified, image of such a mark, it would be appeciated if they could add this to the entry of the silversmith. See http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... 74&t=25678 (second post) for a good example.
If there is not an existing entry, please open a new one in the normal format heading of
SURNAME, Forename ( Grimwade p.page number) e.g SMITH, John (Grimwade p.123)

Some confusion is often caused by changes to the dating system in the mid 18th century and dates prior to 1752 may not be quite what they seem to be to modern eyes .

Until the Calendar Act of 1752, the year in England began officially on 25st March (Lady Day), and not 1st January (even though this was when New Year's Day was celebrated).

1752 was thus the first year in England to officially begin on 1st January.

So prior to that date the year number did not change until 25 st March, so taking 1701 as an example, the dates ran as follows:

25th March - 31st December 1701
1st January - 24th March 1701

Then 1702 started on 25th March 1702

Thus in a document dated any time between January and 24st March before 1752, in modern terms, you need to add a year. In publications you may see this written for example as 22nd January 1750/51, i.e the year as it was known at the time / the year as we know it now. Contemporary documents sometimes used the same convention. This is also known as OS (Old Style) and NS (New Style).

It is often uncertain in many publications which system they are using . Ancestry .com in particular is very erratic. Grimwade seems in most cases to have adjust the biographies to the modern system . The index dates on the Wills at the National Archives are all believed to be in New Style

We strive to check which system the dates are in , and use the following conventions

22nd February 1742 = We are not certain

22nd February 1742 (NS) = We are sure this is the modern system

22nd February 1742 (NS?) = We think this is on the modern system

22nd February 1742 (OS?) = We think this is on the former pre 1752 Act system

If you are not confused , Congratulations !

But also see below : -

The Calendar Act 1752 brought about other changes. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII had reformed the calendar, then in use, known as the Julian Calendar (named after Julius Caesar). The Julian Calendar did not correspond exactly to the solar year. The new Gregorian Calendar cut 10 days from the year in adjustment. Other Catholic countries followed and adopted the Gregorian Calendar but England, being Protestant, did not. England therefore remained 10 days ahead of the New Style Calendar. By 1752 England was some 11 days ahead of other European countries. So in 1752 these days had to be cut out of the year to make the adjustment. Therefore Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed immediately by Thursday 14 September.
In Scotland, 1 January became the official beginning of the year in 1600, the day after 31 December 1599.

Which is why the financial year in Britain begins on 5 April. This is because it is the start of the New Year in the Old Style (25 March), plus the 11 days which were dropped in 1752 - which takes us up to 5 April.
There were actually riots at the time, demanding the return of their "Stolen Eleven Days "