Sim Builders and Architects, 19th Centry London

[Galia72]

Real wild card here - does anyone with Sim ancestors, probably from Aberdeen, have any old family stories about rellies becoming builders or architects and making a name for themselves in London?

[maddys52]

Maybe a long shot for your wild card? There is a William SIM who is an architect mentioned in the papers selling/renting some property in Windsor in 1863,
The Times (London, England), March 14, 1863, Issue 24506, p.6

Also bankrupt in 1866:
"SIM, William (June 23), architect and surveyor,
Danes Inn Strand, and New Windsor, Comp. (14,422) of 5s immediately"

Perry's Bankrupt Gazette, Saturday, July 21, 1866, Vol. XXXIX, Issue 1998, p.607 / 608

and bankrupt in 1878
The Standard, Tuesday, March 5, 1878, Issue 16728, p.6

I think this is him in the 1871 census at Windsor:

William Sim    55    Scotland
Eliza Sim            52    Dorchester
Huson W Sim    29    Bloomsbury, Middlesex
Wm C Sim    25    Middlesex
Frances M Sim    18    Chelsea, Middlesex
Scott B Sim    17    St Mary Abbot Kennsington, Middlesex
Vincent C Sim    15    St Mary Abbot Kennsington, Middlesex
Hubert Sim    13    St Mary Abbot Kennsington, Middlesex
Osburne Sim    10    New Windsor, Berkshire
Sarah Simpson    Servant    27    Buckenham, Buckinghamshire
Emma Pearce    Servant    19    Eton, Buckinghamshire

GBC/1871/1300/0179

[maddys52]

Another possible sighting from 1854

Morning Post, Thursday, April 6, 1854, Issue 25042, p.[1]


Modified to add:
There are quite a few mentions of William SIM in the newspapers, selling various properties, and also being burgled in 1868.

[Galia72]

Thanks, MaddyS - grateful for your hard work. That is my g-g-grandfather, and I know almost everything about him except his origins/parents in Scotland. Of his two marriages, neither recorded his father's name. For a man who used newspapers as much as he did, I haven't yet been able to find an obituary. Was hoping that some distant relative in Scotland might have heard of his case, to give me a new lead to follow.

The other Sims were builders James and Robert in the 1820s to 50's. Again, I have lots of information apart from their origins in Scotland, and hoping for a miracle.

[Forfarian]

The birth of Huson Walter Sim, mother's surname Huson, was registered in the September quarter of 1841 in London.

There was an older son, Robert, born 1840, who isn't on the 1871 census.

However the birth of William Channing Sim, in 1845, gives his mother's surname as Edwards, as does the birth of Scott Buccleuch Sim in 1853. So Mrs Sim, maiden surname Huson, must have died some time between 1841 and 1845.

I have failed so far to find either of these marriages, in order to get at the name and occupation of William Sim's father.

There is a marriage of a William Sim in Truro in 1842, and the potential wives are Elizabeth Snell and Elizabeth Latcher.

A William Snell married in Falmouth in 1840, and the potential wives include Elizabeth Edwards.

Could William Sim's second wife have been the widow of William Snell, I wonder?

Noting that William's possible eldest son was Robert, and that he bestowed the middle name Buccleuch on one of his sons, I speculate that his father was Robert and that he came from somewhere in the Borders.

Edit: I see you have already been down that road, and that the marriage certificates don't help. That seems odd - I wonder if it means that he was illegitimate and didn't know the name of his father?

[hanes teulu]

The Times, Dec 28 1868
"BURGLARY AT WINDSOR
Some thieves at an early hour on Thursday morning burglariously entered the house of Mr Sim, the architect of Clements-inn, in Osborne Terrace, Windsor ........... Before leaving the premises the burglars regaled themselves with a leg of mutton, plum pudding and beer".

 

[Forfarian]

The other Sims were builders James and Robert in the 1820s to 50's. Again, I have lots of information apart from their origins in Scotland, and hoping for a miracle.

Do you think that James, Robert and William were brothers?

And what information do you have that suggests they might have been from the Aberdeen area?

[ev]

Is this William ?

Scottish-born architect, for whom see  Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001), II, 612.   After working in New York and London, Sim may have lived briefly in Dublin from circa 1843 until 1845.  In Dublin on 24 October 1844 he married his second wife, Eliza Edwards, at St Thomas's church.(1)   By the middle of 1845 he had returned to London where he became an architect to the Ladbroke estate in Notting Hill.  He remained in the London area for the rest of his life but was nevertheless elected a member of the Kilkenny & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society on 15 March 1854, having been proposed by the Rev. James Graves.(2)   In 1855 he exhibited  'A view of a residence in Ireland as altered with additions from the design of W. Sim' at the Royal Academy.(3)   During the latter part of his career he lived and worked in Windsor, Berkshire. He died in Ealing, Middlesex, on 28 February 1881 at the age of sixty-five.

http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/4956/SIM-WILLIAM%23



ev

[ShaunJ]

Here's the Dublin marriage register page - not much help to you I suspect https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/display-pdf.jsp?pdfName=d-80-3-1-046