History:Silverthorne (surname)

Family Name

The first record of the name occurs in 1327 in the Parish of Hemington and Hundred of Kilmersdon in the County of Somerset in the southwestern part of England. The French wife of King Edward II had raised a French army to overthrow her husband and place their son Edward III on the throne in 1327. It was necessary to raise the money to pay off her mercenaries by means of a tax of a twentieth of all moveables which were in each man's possession on Michaelmas (29 Sep) day. Named in this tax roll were:

• Roger Selverthorn, 4 shillings
• Richard Sylverthorne, 6 shillings
• William Sylverthorn, 2 shillings.

The next mention is of

• John Silverthorne of the parish of North Stoke, County of Somerset, who, on 22 May 1450, was instituted incumbent vicar of the Church of Saint Martin in the Archdeaconry of Bath.

Our ancestor (probably related to the above, but no evidence discovered yet)

• John Silverthorne, of the parish of Steeple Ashton in the hundred of Whowelsdown and county of Wiltshire, was born about 1450, perhaps the son of another William, after whom he named his eldest son, married 1st about 1485-90, probably at Amesbury Avice Hobbes, who was born about 1460-65 and died by 1517, when her son William released her lands in West Amesbury to Gilbert Bekington, indicating that she was one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Hobbes (whose lands were divided in 1502; in March 1523 (14 Henry VIII), John Sylverthorne released his interest in the Hobbes lands in West Amesbury to William Southe, gentleman, who in 1529 acquired the interest of two of the daughters and co-heirs of Thomas Hobbes; the conflict between Bekington and Southe was not settled until 6 Oct 1538, when the chief justice of the King's Bench settled their variances, mentioning the deeds from John Sylverhotne and Avyce his wife and their son William. The Parish Church Records of Steeple Ashton (F.H.L.:1, 279, 371), show that John, WIlliam,and Margaret Sylverthorne were buried on the 12th, 16th, and 18th days of October 1538, respectively. In our [Monty Reed's] opinion, John and William were the father and son, born say 1450 and 1490, aged about 88 for John and 48 for William, and Margaret may well have been the 2nd wife of John, married soon after the death of Avyce in 1517.

Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire

Steeple Ashton, the home of our ancestors, just three miles east of Trowbridge, was a market town. For more on Steeple Ashton. Its parish church, St. Mary the Virgin, is where our ancestors were "hatched, matched, and dispatched". For more about the church and pictures.

Two Main Branches of Silverthorn(e)s in North America

• New Jersey Branch springs from Oliver Silverthorne (1686-1746), listed in The West Jersey Society's Great Tract in Hunterdon County, 1735. Includes many of the Silverthorn settlers who, at the time of the Revolutionary War, wishing to remain loyal to the British Crown, fled to Upper Canada (Ontario) and became United Empire Loyalists.

• Virginia/North Carolina Branch springs from William Silverthorne (1636-1706) who settled in Accomack County by 1657. He was well documented in the tything and court records more than 160 times from 1657 to 1706. HSF: III:1703-1744.

Legacy Silverthorn, often misspelled as Silverthorne, is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was part of the former City of York before the amalgamation of Toronto in 1998. The approximate boundaries are the GO Transit Barrie line railway tracks to the east, Black Creek Drive and the CP railway line to the west and the former boundaries of the City of York to the north and south. The neighbourhood west of Black Creek Drive is known as Keelesdale. For demographic purposes, the city breaks the area down into two neighbourhoods Keelesdale-Eglinton West, south of Eglinton, and Beechborough-Greenbrook north of Eglinton.

Sources

• HSF, Frank Fremont Reed, History of the Silverthorn Family, Silverthorn Family Association, Chicago, IL, USA 1982. This four volume work was a limited edition, but Ted Marmo has all four volumes and will share information, upon request.

Silverthorne is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Alexandra Silverthorne (born 1980), American photographer
• Dennis Silverthorne (1923-2004), British pair skater
• Jeanne Silverthorne (born 1950), American artist
• Jeffrey Silverthorne (born 1946), American photographer
• Judith Silverthorne (born 1953), Canadian author
• Paul Silverthorne (born 1951), British violist
• Thora Silverthorne (1910-1990), British Communist activist
• Winifred Silverthorne (1925–1998), British pair skater