David Pickersgill Smithson is found in the Birth Index Q1 1883 Tadcaster 9c 807. He was born in Ledsham in Yorkshire the son of William Robert Smithson and Isabella Wilson. His siblings were Ann Emma Smithson (1876 – 1959) and John William Smithson (1878 – 1945). He is found with his parents in the 1891 […]
Smithson
Moulton Hall
The hall was rebuilt on an ancient site in the 1600’s for Leonard Smithson, who was succeeded in 1650 by his son Christopher Smithson. The latter’s son George Smithson was MP for the North Riding in the First Protectorate Parliament in 1654 and briefly MP for Northallerton in 1659. On his death in 1692 the estate was sold by […]
The Sharow Burial Mystery
My interest in my family history started when I was about 10 years old when my mother & father took me for a day out to the Ripon area. I was taken aback to see a headstone at St John’s, Sharow with my name on it! My father informed me that it was my great-great […]
Florence Smithson – A Musical Mystery?
Florence Annette SMITHSON, Welsh Soprano/actress/pantomimist 1884-1936 This star of the Edwardian stage was born in Wales, daughter of Will SMITHSON, actor and provincial theatre manager (?East and West Midlands?) – mother possibly Madame Florence ANNETTA, actress and pantomimist. All three names may be stage names. Florence SMITHSON first married in Merthyr Tydfil in 1901 to […]
So who won the Enos challenge?
Some 10 years or so ago I set a challenge to readers of this site to find the ancestry of Enos Smithson born 1778 in Langthorpe. At the time I’d had a number of discussions with Bill Smithson of Killinghall who had been most helpful with his own research but we couldn’t find where Enos […]
Charles Dickens – The Malton Connection
Charles Dickens’ close link with Malton stemmed from his friendship with Charles Smithson, a member of a Solicitor’s family who practised in Chancery Lane, Malton and shared also in the London firm Smithson and Dunn. Charles Smithson was the eleventh child and sixth son of Richard and Sarah Smithson. He was baptised at St Michael’s […]
Smithson surname distribution in the 1881 census
Figures are shown in the Table below indicating the percentages of Smithsons within individual Counties and as a percentage of all Smithsons within England, Scotland and Wales. The percentage of each County as a total of the overall population is also shown as some Counties have far larger populations than others. Using these figures it […]
Thomas Smithson – Mayor of Ripon, 1890 to 1892
His badge on the baldric bears the Arms of the Butchers’ Company, with the crest of the Smithson family – a squirrel sejant cracking a nut ppr. – and the motto “Nihil sine labore.” Arms: Az. two slaughter axes indorsed in saltire ar. handled or, betw. three bulls’ heads, couped of the second, armed of […]
Smithsons’ Field, Radley College, Oxford
The two new pitches at the extreme north end of the playing fields, adjacent to Little Wood, were named Smithsons' Field in recognition of Bertram Harold Smithson and his son, Malcolm, who were consecutively Head Groundsman from February 1946 to October 1995. They were the father and younger brother respectively of Gerald Arthur Smithson, ex […]