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I am seeking information about an ancestor "John Harris" and his two sons. John was a silver plater in St Martin in the Fields (Charles Street off Long Acre), London in 1796 when he passed away.

I have found his will on the National Archives. As stated he was a Silver plater. At the time of his death he had a son Thomas Harris (possibly John Thomas from baptism certificates) who was also a silver plater living in Compton Street (possibly also St Martins in the fields). He also mentions that his son Henry Robert should be looked after for the duration of his apprenticeship which I assume was also in the trade.

I have found records for a John Harris silver plater at 83 Long Acre which I wonder if was the same person. I have not managed to find any apprenticeship records for the 3 of them. Although one Henry Harris did do an apprenticeship with Benjamin Simpson - silversmith in clement danes in 1801. Sadly Simpson seems to have died shortly after.

I have seen mention of the John Harris's I-V but I am finding it hard to find any biographical information for them and have no access to Grimwade mentioned here. The dates for this John Harris sort of fit with John Harris III (but I have no idea if silver plater was considered a very different profession from silversmith at this time).

I do know that my ancestor Henry was given the stated occupation of "Plater" on his daughter's wedding certificate in 1846 - but of course this could be coach plater, or indeed tin, brass or silver. i have explored each of them! He died I belive in Walworth in 1832. Because of the paucity of records for him my guess is that he never gained his freedom of the city and worked for other people. Both his father and mother had died when he was young so he may not have had good support or he may have worked for his brother Thomas. I know his wife was living in "Great Wild Street" off Drury lane, Clement Danes in 1838 but I believe Henry was already deceased at this point.

For completness also mentioned in the will are John Harris' wife Susanna and four children - Thomas Harris, Henry Robert Harris, Susanna Stedman and Ann Harris. He also mentions a son in law Christopher Stedman (who I believe is a stationer/grocer) and a grand-daughter Susanna Christiana Stedman.

Any suggestions of where I could look next gratefully received. I would particularly like to do some lookups on the goldsmiths apprentice register. Is there any way to do this without travelling to London in person?

Thanks in Advance

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

I checked out the Grimwade Biographies but could not find a match for your John Harris. The only link I could find is that of John Harris (IV) who was recorded as working in Charles Street, but that was not until around the 1823-25 period.

Trev.

Thanks very much Trev for the lookup. Was worth a shot.
I read on here that people think John Harris IV was John Mark Harris which would not fit with my "John" Thomas Harris hypothesis.
John Mark Harris seemed mainly based in the City.

I also looked at dates for John Robert Harris who I think is John Harris V ... just in case my Henry Robert Harris borrowed his father"s name "John" but the dates do not fit for Henry at all either.

There are actually quite a few Charles streets in London at that time so unless it is specific to Long Acre the name could just be chance.
I have found records of a founder under a different name in Charles Street, Long acre not long after the father John Harris died.

I have now managed to find the Goldsmiths apprentice records online at www.londonroll.org
And can find no record there of my three either.

I have also scoured the newspaper records and can find nothing.

So I may have reached my dead end on this one. But that is useful to know sometimes too :-)
Thanks again