Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 164,573 pages of information and 246,142 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Hugh Adams Silver

From Graces Guide

Colonel Hugh Adams Silver (1825-1912) of S. W. Silver and Co

1825 July 14th. Born at Marylebone the son of Stephen Winckworth Silver and his wife Frances Susan Adams

1851 Living at 29 Avenue Road, Marylebone: Hugh Adams Silver (age 24 born Marylebone), Merchant Clothier. With his wife Annie Ellen Silver (age 21 born Kingsland) and their son Walter Hugh (age 8 Months born Marylebone). Also a visitor. Three servants.[1]

1852 Birth of son Stephen Winckworth Silver in Marylebone[2]; baptized in Frampton on Severn[3]

1864 Partnership with S. W. Silver and J. W. Willans, manufacturers of London, was dissolved[4]


1912 Obituary [5]

COLONEL HUGH ADAMS SILVER, V.D., D.L., born at St. John’s Wood on the 14th July, 1825, died on the 27th March, 1912, aged 86.

In 1854* he founded the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works at Silvertown. Whilst in charge of the works he erected several telegraph lines and was associated with Sir Charles Wheatstone in experiments on cables.

He gave the name 'ebonite' to the substance now so extensively used in the manufacture of electrical apparatus.

Colonel Silver raised and equipped the 9th Essex Rifle Volunteer Corps, the command of which he held for 30 years.

He was elected an Associate of The Institution on the 5th February, 1861.



  • Presumably this date was 1864 (as described in other sources of information on the company)


See Also

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Sources of Information

  1. 1851 Census
  2. BMD
  3. Gloucestershire parish records
  4. Liverpool Mercury , May 23, 1864
  5. 1912 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries