Smily Family

The Smily Family were a family of London based silversmiths operating from around 1820 until the late 19th Century.

The family silversmith dynasty started with William Smily who was apprenticed in 1809 to Joseph Preston, a spoon and fork maker. When Joseph Preston died in 1815 he passed over to Thomas Wallis II to finish his apprenticeship, but didn’t gain his freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company until 1830.

It’s likely that in the intervening years of finishing his apprenticeship and gaining the freedom, he worked at a factory of A.B. Savory & Sons in Goswell Street.

In 1833 his son, William Robert Smily was apprenticed to him gaining his freedom in 1840. His other sons were also apprenticed to him – Samuel Smily I in 1840 and Thomas Smily in 1841 at Finsbury Place South, the premises of another A.B. Savoury & Sons factory.

William senior finally entered his own marks in 1855 and 1856 when he became manager of the A. B. Savory & Sons works at Finsbury Place and these were used on items produced by the firm. William moved to Red Lion Street, the location of another A. B. Savoury factory in 1865 and died the same year.

His eldest son, William Robert Smily set up his own business in 1842 as ‘W.R. Smily’ a spoon maker at Goswell Street. He moved around 1844 to Camomile Street where he is listed as a manufacturing silversmith. He moved again in 1852 to Finsbury Square premises and died at the age of 34 in 1858. The business was continued by his brother Thomas Smily who continued to trade under the name of W.R. Smily. Thomas entered his first mark that same year and the firm continued to trade until 1883 when it was bought by Edwin Charles Purdie. Thomas emigrated to Canada and died there in 1918.

William’s other son, Samuel who had apprenticed with his father in 1840 and gained his freedom in 1847, registered his own mark in 1865 and took over his father’s role as works manager of A.B. Savory & Sons.

In 1866 A.B.Savoury registered as a limited company taking the name ‘Goldsmiths Alliance Ltd’. Samuel retired from the Goldsmiths Alliance in 1880 and died in 1882.

William Robert Smily had two sons (William Robert II and Alfred) were also apprenticed silversmiths who gained their freedom in 1869 and 1871. They did not enter their own marks. The son of Samuel Smily (Samuel Smily II) gained his freedom of the Goldsmiths in 1882.