George Silver

George Silver (ca. 1550s–1620s) was a gentleman of England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, who is known for his writings on swordplay. He is thought to have been the eldest of four brothers (one of whom, Toby, was also a swordsman who accompanied his brother in at least one challenge), and eleventh in descent from Sir Bartholomew Silver, who was knighted by Edward II. He married a woman named Mary Haydon in London, in 1580 (1579 in the old calendar then in use in England). Silver's activities after the publication of his book are unclear. The fencing historian Aylward claims that he was alive in 1622, when he was visited (a kind of audit of people claiming noble or gentlemanly status) by Cooke, Clarenceux King-of-Arms. However, Robert Cooke died in 1593. The Clarenceux King-of Arms in 1622 was William Camden, but as he became paralyzed in 1622 and died in 1623 it is doubtful whether he visited Silver either.

Fencing

Although not a professional fencing teacher (a role mostly played by the middle-class London-based Corporation of Maisters of the Noble Science of Defence), Silver was familiar with the fencing schools of the time, and the systems of defence that they taught, and claimed to have achieved a perfect understanding of the use of all weapons. Silver championed the native English martial arts while objecting on ethical and technical grounds to the fashionable continental rapier systems being taught at the time. He particularly disliked the immigrant Italian fencing masters Rocco Bonetti and Vincentio Saviolo, going so far as to challenge the latter to a public fencing match with various weapons atop a scaffold. Silver and his brother Toby had handbills posted all around Saviolo's fencing school and had one hand delivered to him on the day but Saviolo failed to appear.

George Silver (agriculturalist)

George Silver was an agricultural innovator, in Kincardineshire, Scotland, who flourished in the early nineteenth century. Silver was born in the village of Netherley. He was the son of Alexander Silver, who made his fortune with the East India Trading Company. Alexander Silver built the Netherley House mansion in Netherley and died there in 1797. George Silver esq. innovated in land cultivation, grain production and cattle breeding. By 1841 he had purchased the lands of nearby Muchalls Castle.

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George Silver (actor)

George Silver (14 November 1916 – June 1984) was an English actor, born in London.

He was an actor, best known for The Meaning of Life (1983), Victor Victoria (1982) and The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975). Silver died in June, 1984.

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