Samuel Shore, of Norton Hall & Mearsbrook

Samuel Shore (1738–1828) was an English ironmaster, banker and activist of the Yorkshire Association.[1].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Shore_(banker)

He was the son of Samuel Shore the elder (1707–1785) "of Meersbrook", and his wife Margaret Diggles, a Liverpool heiress.

he was educated by Daniel Lowe of Norton, a nonconformist minister who ran a dissenting academy, and became a member of Sheffield's Upper Chapel.[2][3][4]

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, seen from the east

After travel and study abroad that was cut short in 1757 by the Seven Years' War, Shore married in 1759, and later came into possession of Norton Hall through his wife, Urith Offley.

Norton Hall

He served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1761.[2]

Shore was active as an ironmaster. He was also involved in the River Don navigation scheme; and the Sheffield Town Trust.[5]

The elder Samuel Shore bought Meersbrook House in the 1770s from Benjamin Roebuck, after a bank failure. He died there on 23 September 1785. The younger Samuel Shore moved there, on his second marriage in 1788.

Meersbrook House

Shore was brought into political work on a national stage by Christopher Wyvill.[5] In 1791 he supported Joseph Gales in founding the Sheffield Constitutional Society.[8] In 1819 Shore chaired a large public meeting in Sheffield, to ask the Prince Regent to have an inquiry made into the Peterloo Massacre. In 1820 his name was put forward for Derbyshire at the general election: but Shore was by then confined to his bed. The proposal was mischief made by Peter Crompton.[9]

Family

Shore married:[3]

1. Urith Offley, daughter of Joseph Offley, who died in 1781;
2. Lydia Flower, daughter of Freeman Flower, in 1788.

There were three sons of the first marriage:

1. Offley,
2. Samuel and
3. Bohun.

Shore's sister Hannah married Thomas Walker;[3] his brother William married Mary Evans (daughter of George Evans and Anna Nightingale) and was father of William Edward Shore—and so grandfather of Florence Nightingale.[10]

Shore and Lydia adopted Lydia Humble, daughter of Flower Humble (a relation of Lydia Flower); she married Edward Higginson.[11]

His obituary states

”Activity of body, no less than activity and energy of mind belonged to Mr. Shore. He enjoyed through his long life an enviable state of health and that eveness and elasticity of spirit which belongs peculiarly to those who are in constant action, and who have the hope which religion gives. He sunk very gradually into the tomb. He was truly a green old age.”

---

Notes

From Samuel Shore, the quiet reformer (1738-1828) < link >

Samuel Shore was one of the 18th century’s influential reformers. Yet it would appear from his obituary that few knew the extent of his involvement. The Shore family appear to have started on their road to being Sheffield’s wealthiest family by being quarry men and stone masons. Three Shore brothers are mentioned in a document as demolishing the stonework of Sheffield Castle. A descendent of one of those brothers appears in documents as owning the first cementation works in Sheffield in 1700. Samuel’s father married a rich heiress from Liverpool. By the time Samuel Shore was born in 1738 the Shores were one of the richest family in Sheffield. …

Samuel now had position and status that most manufacturers in the North did not have, or most dissenters either. Samuel Shore knew London well, was multi-lingual, and with a keen interest in science. As a Unitarian Samuel was forbidden by law the right to worship. Samuel began a fight to change the law, bring about electoral reform and establish equal rights for all under the law. This was dangerous talk in Britain. It could be construed as treason. But Samuel was gaining respect throughout Yorkshire and beyond. …

Sadly Samuel never saw the Great Reform Act which gave 2 MPs to Sheffield in 1832 or the abolition of the Slave Trade in 1833 as he died in 1828 at the age of 90 at Meersbrook Hall.

Note

Images are from Wikipedia Commons.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Shore_%28banker%29
2. Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol. II. page 1453
3. < Stirnet Genealogy - ‘Shore1’ >
4. < Stirnet Genealogy - ‘FZmisc02’ >
5. Samuel Shore, the quiet reformer (1738-1828) < link >
6. The Life and Times of Florence Nightingale. < link >
7. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208070792/samuel-shore
8. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Shore-1568