John Roberts of Abbeydale Hall

Jenny Roberts has written to us from New Zealand. She is putting together a family history and is interested in finding out more about her husband's second great uncle, John Roberts, the silversmith and benefactor who lived at Abbeydale Hall from 1851 until his death in 1888 and who paid for the building of St. John's Church. In particular, Jenny would love to find a portrait or photograph of her ancestor. So far we have been unable to help so if you know of one we would be delighted to hear from you. Here is what we have found out about him.

John Roberts was born in Sheffield on St. Patrick's Day, 17 March 1798, the son of Richard Roberts. He had a brother, Henry, from his father's first marriage and a half sister, Julia (bc. 1827), and half-brother, Edwin (bc. 1830), from his father's second marriage to Julia Anstiss Blake in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 1822.

 John Roberts was apprenticed in Sheffield to a gunsmith and it is thought that he followed that occupation for several years after the expiration of his indentures. His introduction to the silver trade is thought to have been, in part at least, a consequence of his marriage in 1830 to Sarah, the widow of Charles Showell, a gun manufacturer, and the daughter of Sarah and Henry Wilkinson, a Sheffield silversmith. 

 For a number of years the couple lived in Shrewsbury Road in The Park district of Sheffield. Whilst there, Roberts was a prominent worker in connection with St. John's Church, Park, and was said to be a churchwarden, overseer and guardian of the poor. A kind-hearted and generous man, it was said that no deserving applicant for help ever appealed to him in vain. But for his retiring disposition he might have held public office. 

John and Sarah Roberts had no children of their own and John was keen to find someone to succeed to his business. He asked his friend William Shaw, a school teacher at Cromford in Derbyshire, to look out for a promising pupil who would be suitable. Shaw recommended Ebenezer Hall, the third of twelve children of a smallholder living at Middleton by Wirksworth. In 1836, at the age of 16, Hall moved to Sheffield, where he lived in Shrewsbury Road with Roberts and his wife.

In four years Hall was made a manager, doing most of the travelling on behalf of the firm. He frequently travelled to London and Scotland at the time when travel was by stagecoach, being slow and uncomfortable. At the age of 27 he was taken into partnership by Roberts. When the average weekly wage was £1 10s., the partners were each allowed to take £2 2s. per week for their own use. The firm became known as Roberts and Hall.

Martin, Hall & Company's Shrewsbury Works, Broad Street, Park in 1861

The Partnership flourished, Roberts gradually withdrawing from active involvement but always showing a great interest. At the Great Exhibition in London of 1851, the firm won a certificate of merit for an exhibit. In 1852 they amalgamated with Martin and Naylor to become Martin Hall and Co. The premises were recorded as being 'clean and cheerful' and their products became famous for both design and quality. A limited liability company was floated in 1866 and by 1876, when both Roberts and Martin had retired, Hall was left to administer the company. 

There is evidence of a building on the present site of Abbeydale Hall as early as 1767. Little is known of its early history prior to 1851 when it was purchased by John Roberts, who lived there until his death in 1888. When Roberts moved to Abbey Dale Villa, as it was then known, he was accompanied by his wife Sarah and his partner Ebenezer Hall. Roberts built extensions to the original house in Victorian Gothic style and bought land to either side of the Baslow Road. 

Abbeydale Hall, Dore

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday 1 August 1857, a serious fire broke out in a locked attic in a part of the house built within the previous 18 months. The fire was discovered by a Mr. Godber, a farmer who was at work in his fields and the alarm was raised immediately. Local farmers and their servants got together to remove the expensive furniture, estimated to be worth £2,000, from the dining, drawing, breakfast and other rooms in the three quarters of an hour it took the fire engine to arrive from Sheffield. The fire service took a similar time to extinguish the flames by which time the roof was falling in, the bedrooms were badly damaged, particularly that of Ebenezer Hall, where the floor had burnt through with debris falling into the breakfast room below. The house was insured for £500 with a further £300 for contents. The actual losses were estimated at £1,600.

Although he was remembered as a quiet and unassuming man, John Roberts was well liked by the local community in which he took an active interest. He is mentioned in various newspaper accounts as opening up the beautiful gardens at Abbeydale Park to host flower shows, notably by the Ecclesall and Dore Horticultural and Floral Society. On New Year's Day 1859, about 80 "widows and females" were entertained to tea in the infant school at Totley. On 15 April 1861 he laid the first stone for the new infant school at Dore. The ceremony was followed by a hugely successful fund raising concert attended by The Mayor of Sheffield.

Foundation stone, Church of St. John the Evangelist, Abbeydale

The Mayor of Sheffield was one of about 200 guests at another ceremony, on 1 September 1873, when John Roberts laid the foundation stone of St. John's Church. It was to be built on 5,810 square yards of land he had given for the purpose on the opposite side of the Baslow road from the hall and entirely at his own expense. He had been a churchgoer all his life and, with the Midland Railway opening the Dore & Totley Station on 1 February 1872, he had determined the need for a place of worship for the expanding local community. He entrusted the building of the church to a committee chaired by Joseph Mountain and the Sheffield architects Flockton and Abbott were given carte blanche to design a building that would do credit to its beautiful location. Roberts also paid for an organ built by Fenton Heald of Sheffield and for all the interior furnishings of the building.

 Before the building could be completed, however, Mrs Sarah Roberts died on 9 November 1874. One of the stained glass windows by Herr Meyer of Munich is dedicated to her memory. It depicts Mrs Roberts in the act ofgiving bread to the hungry and teaching children to read. The Church of St. John the Evangelist, Abbeydale Park, was dedicated by the Right Reverend George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield, on 11 January 1876. The total cost of the church, was estimated at £5,000. In addition John Roberts gave £1,150 towards the permanent endowment of the district. This was supplemented by £550 from Ebenezer Hall and £300 by the Duke of Devonshire and smaller amounts from other benefactors. The same three gentlemen also gave substantial sums of money towards the building of a vicarage: Mr Roberts £500, Mr. Hall and the Duke of Devonshire each £250.

Window dedicated to Mrs Sarah Roberts, Church of St. John the Evangelist, Abbeydale

In his later life, John Roberts was a regular visitor to Sheffield where in the morning he was frequently seen reading the newspapers in the Athenaeum. Having described his occupation as a farmer in the 1871 census, no doubt he would have been pleased with this entry in the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent on 22 February 1879. Lambing Extraordinary: John Roberts, Esq., of Abbeydale Park, has 30 ewes which have recently given birth to the large number of 59 lambs, 56 of which are doing well. No less than 15 of these lambs were born of 5 of these ewes. 

In 1880 John Roberts sold the Abbeydale Park Estate to Ebenezer Hall but he continued to live in Abbeydale Hall as a resident with Ebenezer and his wife Sarah Ann. She was a cousin of Robers's own wife Sarah and had been living at the hall for several years before the couple married in 1876.

John Roberts died on 11 April 1888 at the ripe old age of 90. On 14 April, his funeral cortege first proceeded to St. John's Church where there was a service conducted in part by Rev. J. T. F. Aldred, vicar of Dore, who later in the day said he believed that "Mr Roberts had dispensed more in charity than anyone else in the neighbourhood and yet it had been, perhaps, less known." He is buried in the family vault in the General Cemetery, Sheffield, where his wife had been buried earlier. 

 When St. John's Church was extended in 1936, £1,000 out of the total cost of £3,500 came from a legacy from its founder, John Roberts, who had had the foresight to provide for its expansion to accommodate the growing population of the district. 

Church of St. John the Evangelist, Abbeydale.

Mary Anstiss Hendy memorial, Church of St. John the Evangelist, Abbeydale

Wills and Administrations

John Roberts 10 July 1888. The Will of John Roberts late of Abbey Dale Park in the Parish of Dore in the County of Derby Gentleman who died 11 April 1888 at Abbey Dale Park was proved at Derby by Ebenezer Hall the Younger of Stafford-street Park in the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York Manager at Martin Hall and Company Limited and Peter Wragg of Sheffield Secretary of Martin Hall and Company Limited the Executors. Personal Estate £19,877 10s. 5d. Resworn August 1889 £19,479 3s. 11d.