Websters Museum Sheffield

[duckweed]

Doing research into a pub called the Museum. It was said to be opened in 1897 and built on the site of a mortuary so I started looking for history of the Mortuary but drew a blank also found newspaper articles going back to 1882 mentioning it as the Museum hotel. Also there was a mention of Webster's museum.

According to Museum Sheffield there was a Reuben Webster who worked in Orchard Street (where pub is) and he was a taxidermist who supplied royalty and museums. He was supposed to have died in 1885 and because the estate couldn't be sold they did a deal with the Sheffield public museum. The collection is still housed in Weston Park Museum.

Did Webster house a museum of his taxidermy at the Museum Hotel/pub? Did he die in 1885. I have 1890 for a burial at Burngreave Cemetery.

Want to help me find out about this man? Seems intriguing. There would appear to be a number of pubs in Sheffield that had museums at the time.

 

[p.risboy]

1881 census.

Reuben Webster
Age: 55
abt 1826

Spouse - Ellen Webster

Born - Brampton (Cfield), Derbyshire, England
Civil Parish: Sheffield
County - Yorkshire
Street Address: 25 & 27 Orchard St "Neptune".

Occupation: Naturalist Employ 1 Man (Birdstuff) ((1 Boy))

Reg Dist -Sheffield
Sub-reg Dist - West Sheffield
ED-19
Piece -4643. Folio - 94. Page - 4.

Reuben Webster 55.
Ellen Webster 55
Reuben Webster 25
Ellen Webster 19
Annie Webster 14
Jane Bedford 16
Walter Darwent 21

All others born Sheffield.


Steve.

 

[p.risboy]

1871 census.

Rueben Webster
Age: 46
abt 1825

Spouse - Ellen Webster

Born Cheslerfield, Derbyshire. (Chesterfield).
Civil Parish: Sheffield
Ecclesiastical parish: St Peter
Town - Sheffield
Yorkshire

Reg Dist - Sheffield
Sub Dist - North Sheffield
ED - 2

Rueben Webster 46. Occ. Bird Preserver.
Ellen Webster 46
John T Webster 14
Reuben Webster 14
Ellen Webster 12
Anna Webster 4
Clara Whitfield 10


Address looks like 67, Corporation St........hard to read.


Steve.

 

[leefer]

http://collections.museums-sheffiel...ate:flow=a00c9ec6-048c-4ad5-8545-912d6c25c8bf

Remember you touching on this man before Duckweed...a real interesting story.


Incidently i was in Skipton and Ilkley last week delivering.........two lovely places and the drive in that area was such a pleasure,lovely unspoilt part of the world.

 

[p.risboy]

1861 census.

Reubin Webster
Age: 35
abt 1826

Spouse - Helen Webster

Born - Beauton, Derbyshire, England
Civil Parish: Brightside Bierlow
Eccl parish: Wicker
Town-Sheffield
Yorkshire

Address -15, Chapel Street.

Occupation - Animal & Bird Preserver.

Reg Dist - Sheffield
Sub-reg Dist - Brightside
ED - 10

Reubin Webster 35
Helen Webster 35
Sarah Ann Webster 10
John Thos Webster 6
Reubin Webster 3


Steve.

 

[p.risboy]

Marriage.

Reuben Webster
Jan-Feb-Mar 1848
Sheffield
County: Yorkshire West Riding
Volume 22
Page 434

One of the brides listed is Ellen Taylor.


Steve.

 

[leefer]

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WEBSTER/2002-11/1036977383

Some old info....2002.

Webster seems a fairly common name for the Sheffield area and some early Websters from Sheffield were early settlers in the USA.

Do you know if the Websters from Brampton were linked with the big furnising store Duckweed?

 

[duckweed]

I think the furniture Websters may be related because I have Reuben Webster mentioned on that street.

Didn't realise there were so many taxidermists in Webster family. Quite Amazing. I think I need to look up trade directories. There is a Webster mentioned as a Halft Scale presser which is someone who makes handles out of horn and bone etc. Wonder if that is how they started?

There is also a mention of Reubens Obituary in 1885. Haven't found it yet.

 

[leefer]

Where was he buried Duckweed...maybe the obituary was in Chesterfield?

Who knows maybe his family had him stuffed:2fun:

 

[duckweed]

Found Reuben was buried in Burngreave December 1885 in the grave of his father John T Webster. Listed as Licenced Victualler not taxidermist.

 

[leefer]

In the Sheffield Obituaries Duckweed it gives his address as The Museum....he either died on December 23rd 1885...or that is when his Obituary was.

 

[duckweed]

I've set the cat among the pigeons now. I have told a whole lot of Sheffielders that had been quoting the legend of the Museum pub as a morgue that the evidence doesn't stand up. In fact what they have been quoting for years is an urban myth.

They haven't learnt from being a genealogist. Any one who has been researching their family tree will know there are always people who will swear certain things happened in their family because the tale was handed down over the generations but when you do the research you find it isn't so. Like the ancestor who was supposed to have drowned in his twenties who turns out to have lived to a ripe old age.

 

[p.risboy]

Maybe a Morgue for dead birds DW.:2fun::2fun:

 

[duckweed]

What seems to be is that 2 separate people and buildings have been merged into one. A person called Hall Overend taught anatomy and had a sort of museum in the late 18thc. The house was in Church Street not a long way away from the museum Hotel was built some 80 years on.

Overend's son founded the Medical School in 1828. There were riots involving the anatomy school because of perceived body snatching. In 1887 they moved the Medical School to across from the Museum Hotel/Pub.