After the death of Samuel Blythe in 1735, his widow Mary Blythe lived in Bishops’ House until her death in 1753. After that, the ownership of the House passed away from the Blythe family and the building was let to two families of tenant farmers; the Wildes from 1753 until about 1833 and then the Whites from 1833 to 1886.

We know that Benjamin Roebuck bought land on the western side of Meersbrook in 1759 when he built Meersbrook Hall. We don’t know who owned the land on the eastern side of Meersbrook, including where Bishops’ House is, at the time the Blythes left.

The earliest evidence found so far is a document dated 1779 showing the land on which Bishops’ House stands, and the adjacent fields in the ownership of Samuel Shore and son, being let to two brothers, George and Thomas Wilde. By 1817 the owner is recorded as Samuel Shore senior.

The Wilde family 1753-1833

George Wilde married Ann Green on the 26th of April 1753, just a month before the death of Mary Blythe. We think that this is more than just a coincidence and that George Wilde was in the process of being given the tenancy of Bishops’ House. George and Ann had five children.

1-George was born on the 9th of March 1754 and baptised on the 15th of April 1754.
2-Thomas, baptised on the 12th of March 1756.
3-Anne, baptised on the 20th of April 1758. Ann was buried on the 31st of March 1771 aged 12.
4-Mary, baptised on the 26th of May 1760.
5-Elizabeth, baptised on the 5th of December 1762.

Anne, George’s wife was buried on the 28th of September 1764.

George Wilde was buried on the 26th of March 1790.

George Wilde (1754-1816) married Sarah Hallam on the 11th of April 1779.

George and Sarah Wilde had eleven children:

1-Anne, baptised on the 19th of September 1779.
2-Sarah, baptised on the 17th of June 1781.
3-George, baptised on the 15th of February 1784. He married Annie Gillat on the 3rd of Decenber 1810. George, was buried on the 22nd of February 1815, aged 31.
4-Joseph, baptised on the 6th of November 1785. He married Elizabeth Bingham on the 24th of December 1805. Joseph was recorded as a file maker on the baptism of his son, Roland, on the 5th of December 1813.
5-William, baptised on the 22nd of April 1787.
6-Martha, baptised on the 12th of August 1788.
7-Edward, baptised on the 7th of November1790. Edward was recorded as a filesmith, apprenticed to Thomas Wright, forkmaker, in 1806.
8-Henry, baptised on the 12th of February 1792.
9-Ellis, baptised on the 1st of December 1793.
10-Frances, baptised on the 11th of December1796.
11-Aaron, baptised on the 4th of August 1799.

Thomas Wilde (1756-1816) married Sarah Mullenieux on the 10th of January 1785.

Thomas and Sarah Wilde had eight children:

1-Thomas, baptised on the 20th of November 1785. He is listed as a lodger in the household of Mary Birch, a retired shopkeeper in Four Lane Ends, in the 1851 census and was described as a lodger aged 65, unmarried and a retired file cutter.
Thomas Wilde was buried on the 10th of August 1853 aged 67 and is listed as ‘of Four Lane Ends.’
2-Mary, baptised on the 6th of May 1787. Mary was buried on the 7th of January 1790.
3-Hannah, baptised on the 16th of March 1789. She married William Rodgers on the 26th of April 1807. They had seven children. Hannah died I February 1844.
4-Anne, baptised on the 10th of May 1790.
5-John, baptised on the 9th of October 1791. He married Ann and was recorded as a filesmith on the baptism of their son John, on the 5th of October 1828. He was buried on the 25th of January 1829 aged 37.
6-Mary was baptised on the 23rd of September 1792. She died in 1867 in Manchester, Lancashire.
7-James, was baptised on the 15th of September 1793. James Wild was buried on the 25th of August 1822 aged 29. A newspaper article about his burial names him as a filesmith.
8-Ruth, baptised on the 21st of August 1796.

George Wild was buried on the 28th of May 1815 aged 61.

Thomas Wild was buried on the 24th of January 1816 aged 59.

Sarah Wild was buried on the 22nd of January 1831 aged 75.

Sarah Wild was buried on the 27th of July 1834 aged 78.

Unfortunately the burial records do not record the name of the husband, so we don’t know which Sarah was married to George, and which to Thomas.

It has always puzzled us how George and Thomas Wilde managed to provide for their wives and a combined total of nineteen children. Only one of the children, Thomas’ daughter Mary is recorded as dying when young. The list of fields from the map of the parish of Norton in 1804 and 1805 shows the Wilde brothers farming only 10.8 acres, and another list from 1817 (no doubt compiled earlier as both brothers had died by 1816) shows them farming less than 0.7 acres; just the area around Bishops’ House.

It would have been typical of children at that time to find work in other farms or in domestic service from the age of ten or more, so from the early 1790s, the older children would have left home.

Further research showed that George Wilde was listed as a filesmith and was given the freedom of the Company of Cutlers in 1789. This meant that he could make his own identifiable mark and was allowed to take on one apprentice of his own at a time. Thomas followed, being listed as a filesmith in 1792.
As can be seen above, two of George’s sons, Joseph and Edward, and three of Thomas’ sons, Thomas, John and James also went into the file making industry. Three of them, Edward, John and James also became filesmiths.

By 1800 Sheffield was a town of about 45,000 and the effects of the industrial revolution were beginning, even in a quiet village like Norton Lees, where more and more people were leaving the farms for the new industries. It seems that the occupants of Bishops’ House were following this trend.

Sources

The Norton Parish Records 1559 to 1813, available at the Local Studies Library on the 1st floor, Central Library, Surrey Street Sheffield S1 1XZ.

The Norton Parish Records 1813 to 1901, available at the Sheffield Archives Library at 52 Shoreham Street Sheffield S1 4SP.

Leader R. E. (1906) History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York. V2 list of apprentices and freemen. Printed by authority of the Company of Cutlers by Pawson and Brailsford 1906.

A useful article on the file making industry can be found at: https://www.dhi.ac.uk/matshef/unwin/MSfilecutter.htm

The White family 1833-1886

The two Wilde widows, the two Sarahs, died in 1831 and 1834, and the first reference we have for Joseph White farming in the area is in 1833. These dates are very close. It is possible that following the deaths of their husbands, George and Thomas in 1815 and 1816, the landlord, Samuel Shore, allowed the two widows to live in Bishops’ House with some of the children until their deaths, after which Joseph White and his family moved in.

Joseph White was born about 1794 in Heeley, Yorkshire and was a dairy farmer. About 1820 he married Saley Whittington, born about 1787 in Greenhill, Derbyshire, the daughter of a prominent farmer who farmed at the grange of Mosborough Hall and they lived in Sponden, Derbyshire, where their first son, James was born in 1821. In 1822 they had another son, Thomas who was buried on the 23rd of June 1832.
By 1833 Joseph White was farming in Norton Lees, though we do not know if the family lived at Bishops’ House.
By 1841 the family were living in Bishops’ House and farming about 40 acres on land between the house and the Meers Brook.

Joseph’s wife Saley was buried on the 9th of July 1843, aged 56.

Their son James married Jane Mitchell on the 15th of July 1844 at All Saints, Rotherham. She had been born in Greenhill on the 27th of March 1815.

James and Jane White had eight children:

1-Saley, born on the 13th of April 1845 in Bishops’ House and baptised on the 11th of May 1845. She married William John Hoyland, farmer of Gleadless, 42, at St James’ Norton Lees on the 17th of November 1875. His father was Hugh Hoyland, farmer and her father was James White, farmer. Saley White died on the 15th of May 1921.
2-Thomas, born on the 24th of May 1846 and baptised on the 2nd of August 1846. He married Jane Marsh, 22, at St James, Norton Lees on the 5th of February 1866. His father was James White, farmer and her father was William Marsh, cutler.
3-Jane Hannah, born on the 23rd of March 1848 and baptised on the 30th of April 1848. She died on the 1st of December 1913 at the Little Sisters of the Poor, Healey, Sheffield.
4-Ella, born on the 31st of October 1849 and baptised on the 9th of December 1849. She married Francis William Rawlins on the 16th of February 1876 at St James, Norton Lees. He was a bachelor, 21, a dressing case instrument manufacturer of Norton. His father was Joseph B Rawlins, dressing case manufacturer and her father was James White, farmer. Ella died on the 22nd of April 1885.
5-James, born on the 10th of December 1851and baptised on the 29th of February 1852. James died on the 21st of January 1891.
6-William, born on the 22nd of July 1854 and baptised on the 24th of September 1854.
7-Elizabeth Sykes, born on the 5th of July 1856 and baptised on the 3rd of August 1856.
8-Joseph Lindley, born on the 11th of May 1861(this date must be wrong), and baptised on the 14th of April 1861. He married Harriet Alice Pickford on the 8th of April 1883 at St James, Norton Lees.

Joseph White died on the 6th of March 1869 aged 75 and was buried on the 10th of March 1869.

James White’s wife Jane died on the 9th of September 1875. Most of his children moved out and by 1881 he was farming with just his sons James and Joseph Lindsey. By 1891 Bishops’ House had been taken over for the use of the Park Gardeners and James White was living in the row of three cottages to the east of Bishops’ House, with his daughter Jane and granddaughter Winifred. He is still recorded as a farmer in 1891 and 1893. James White died on the 21st of January 1896 aged 76 years.

In contrast to the Wilde family, who combined farming with joining the file making industry, Joseph White and his son James appear to have been nothing but farmers. The 1845 map of Norton parish records Joseph White farming 41.4 acres. The 1851 census records him farming 40 acres. By the 1861 census he was farming 55 acres and 56 acres by the 1861 census. The 1871 and 1881 censuses record his son James farming 56 acres.

Sources

Bright P (1845) Plan of the Parish of Norton in the County of Derby 1845.

The census returns for 1841 to 1891.

The Norton Parish Records 1559 to 1813, available at the Local Studies Library on the 1st floor, Central Library, Surrey Street Sheffield S1 1XZ.

The Norton Parish Records 1813 to 1901, available at the Sheffield Archives Library at 52 Shoreham Street Sheffield S1 4SP.

The Derrick Connolly family tree at genealogy.com.

Information supplied by Joy Bullivant.