I can find a Sarah Jow, 42 (widow) with Daughters Elizabeth and Ann living on Oborne St with Thos Sylvester, 55 (widow) also Charles Sylvester (17) in 1851.
1861, Living as man and wife (looks like they got married in Rotherham in 1852, his name as Silvester) with Charles and also Walter Jow, grandson (illegitimate son of Elizabeth Jow).
My posts were a right balls up. It's a shame I can't find a way to edit the first post.
Sarah Atkin married Thomas Silvester/Sylvester December 1818 at St Peters Parish Church Sheffield
I've got approximate birth for her of 1807 in Sheffield
Thomas
1841 Census Roscoe Place Sheffield - Cutler - no sign of wife & does not say widowed or married
1851 Census 3 Osborne Street Brightside - Cutler and widower
1861 Census King Street - Brass Filer and Married to "sarah"
1862 Dead
Can a cutler revert to a Brass Filer?
I suspect there are two wives named Sarah.
Maybe I've got the wrong 1861 Census?
Second Sarah could be Jow
Married her when?
When did first Sarah die
Hope thats much clearer and fingers crossed Ive not made a balls up again.
I reckon you're right about two wives called Sarah. Quite a few people called Sarah Silvester or Sylvester died in Sheffield or Rotherham in the relevant period.
Thomas Silvester married Sarah Atkin in the parish church, Sheffield on Thursday 3 December 1818, the witnesses being good old Joseph Hudson the parish clerk, and James Hobson. Sarah Atkin can’t have been born in 1807, because she would have been too young to get married in 1818.
Incidentally, a Thomas Silvester married a Sarah Guest on Tuesday 11 August 1829, witnesses being James Dempsey and Joseph Hudson.
I think you’ve got the same Thomas Sylvester in 1851 and 1861, it certainly looks like there’s links there.
With places and approximate dates of birth, in 1851 in Oborne Street you have Sarah Gow (Head) 1809 Wadsley (which is certainly part of Sheffield now), Ann Gow 1834 Sheffield, Elizabeth Gow 1839 Sheffield, James Brook (lodger) 1792 Stowe Lincolnshire, Thomas Sylvester (lodger) 1796 Sheffield, and Charles Sylvester (lodger) 1834 Warwick.
Then in 1861 in King Street you have Thomas Sylvester (head), 1796 Sheffield, Sarah Sylvester (wife) 1807 Sheffield, Charles Sylvester (son) 1834 Warwick, and Walter Jow (grandson) 1857 in Sheffield.
It looks to me like widower Thomas married his widowed landlady, Mrs. Gow / Jow.
A Thomas Sylvester married either Sarah Jow or Harriett Ault in Rotherham in Q4 1852 (9C 582).
Men did have a strong tendency (I think) to stick to the same trade and there was a lot of pride attached to those skills. However they might have had to change trade as they got older for health reasons or because their specific trade faced a loss of demand or technological changes, etc. So it might have been that whatever part of the cutlery trade Thomas learned as a younger man wasn’t possible for him at age 65, hence becoming a brass filer by the time of the 1861 census to keep some money coming in.
Good point about Sarah's age so I've changed it to about 1800 and hope something turns up.
Thomas's youngest child was born 1835 so Sarah 1 must have died around that time, freeing him up to marry Sarah 2.
If he did marry Gow then I'd need her maiden name to find the marriage record. I have looked on Ancestry for marriages for him and here on SI's without success. I search both spellings of his surname.
It just occurred to me (a bit slow on the uptake sometimes) that the first Sarah might well have died in Warwick, where their son Charles was born. The baptismal records for Charles Silvester and his sister Eliza say that their parents lived in Bowling Green Street. A Sarah Silvester, 40 years of age, residing in Bowling Green Street, died in 1837 and was buried on 29 January 1837 at St. Mary's nearby (in the centre of Warwick).
Which would explain why there was no sign of Sarah in Roscoe Field in 1841 (near Shalesmoor somewhere, I think).
Thomas Sylvester is my 4 x great uncle. I have not done much research on him, but I do have him marring Sarah Atkin as one of posters above stated. I do have a tree on ancestry if you message me I will give you access to my tree.