▶Date of birth:  (bapt) 15 June 1827        Place of birth: Huntspill, Somerset

▶Father:   Thomas Hookham Silvester     Mother: Lucy Parsons

▶Spouse(s): (unmarried)     Date(s) of marriage:       Place(s) of marriage:

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Paul De Hookham (also D’Ockham) Sylvester (also Silvester) began his life in the Church as a Curate of St Paul’s in Cheltenham; he held many other posts, before he was appointed Rector of St Levan, in Cornwall (he retired and died in Penzance). He was baptised in 1827, in Huntspill, Somerset, the eldest son of Dr Thomas Hookham Sylvester, physician and surgeon, of Clapham Common, Surrey, and his wife Lucy, daughter of the Revd. Henry Parsons. By the time of the 1841 census he lived with his family at Grove, Clapham Common, in Surrey, where his father practised as a physician. Sylvester matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1846, BA 1850, MA 1853.

In 1851 he was ordained Deacon, and in 1852 Priest (both Gloucester and Bristol), and in 1851 was licensed Curate of St Paul’s Church in Cheltenham, and at the time of the 1851 census was recorded as a “Visitor” at nearly Albert Place in Cheltenham; in 1853 he lived at 8 Selkirk Parade (now 57 Prestbury Road).

Silvester then entered a period of rapid change of location. He left Cheltenham in 1853, when he was appointed Curate at Kirby Misperton, Yorkshire, of Basildon, Berkshire in 1854, of Enmore, Somerset 1854-7, of Ockley, Surrey 1857-9, and of Chalford, Gloucestershire 1859-61. In 1861 he was appointed Curate of Hilperton, in Wiltshire, supported by four servants, and the following year became Curate of West Knighton and Broadmayne, Dorset, where he remained for sixteen years.

In 1878, moving further west, he was installed as Rector of St Levan, in Cornwall, where his involvement with the local community included membership of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, and of the St Levans School Board. In the late 1880s he made a tour of “the East, visiting Palestine”. In his later years he served on the Committee of the Penzance Library Board.

In 1901 he had moved again, this time into Penzance, where he retired from his clerical duties. He died, unmarried, at his house, Burford, Mennaye Road, Penzance, in 1908, at the age of eighty; his wealth at death was sworn at just under £13,500.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Oxford      Moved from Pittville to: Kirby Misperton, Yorkshire

▶Date of death: 20 January 1908       Place of death: Burford, Mennaye Road, Penzance

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 8186

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden