Selina Sulley (buried 1911)

Arthur Joseph Sulley (Son)

born 1853 Nottingham died 1930 London Arthur was the son of Selina and Joseph Sulley. He married Louisa Ada Gordon in 1880 and lived in Hampstead Village, a London suburb.

He was a well-known  London based art dealer best known for selling Dutch Old Master paintings, including the record breaking Rembrandt Van Rijn, The Mill in 1911 for £100,000 (approx. £7,000,000 in 2020), now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. He became a principal for Lawrie & co. a major London art dealership with a base in Glasgow.  In 1895 and 1896, he travelled in the USA. At the time most of the American purchases of Dutch Old Master paintings went through Lawrie & Co and joseph Sulley found a role to play in this market.  Joseph Sulley began his own gallery on New Bond Street. In the years before his death Joseph Sulley had conducted his business from a private house on Grosvenor Street. When he died, he left £223,433 (£10,229,969 in 2020)

The Sheffield Daily Independent - Wednesday 14th January 1931

Mr Arthur Joseph Sulley, of 54 Grosvenor Street, London, for nearly half a century one of the prominent picture dealers in London, at one time a partner in the firm of Lawrie and Co. of Glasgow and London, left £223,433 (net personalty £221,400). He gives £104 a year to his valet's widow, £105 to his daughter's maid, Lucy Colmore, and three years salary to his caretaker. Upon the failure of certain trusts, he gives a third of the residue between the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, Hospital for Sick Children, in the East End, and the London Hospital.

Philip Sulley (Son)

born 1860 Nottingham died 1928 Edinburgh Scotland

Philip Sulley was the son of Selina and Joseph Sulley. He married Mary Ann Mapple on 15^th May 1883.  Philip Sulley began his government career in Birkenhead he then went to Cupar, Fife, Scotland approx. 1898 as a Surveyor of Taxes and County Assessor, he held the position for 10 years. He was then transferred to Galashiels.  After his retirement from government Philip Sulley built up a business as an income tax expert, and had a wide clientele in Fife and the border district.  During the Great War he did much work as a recruiting speaker, (one of his sons was killed in the war and one was seriously injured). He was a burns night enthusiast and wrote and lectured on the subject. He also wrote a book on the history of Birkenhead.  He was a keen freemason and was a Past Master of Lodge Coupar, Fife.

Nottingham Evening Post - 11th September 1889

Mr Philip Sulley, F.R.H.S., a native of Nottingham, and formerly captain of the High School, was on Saturday last presented at Birkenhead with a valuable gold watch and albert guard, accompanied by a tastefully illuminated address, upon the occasion of his departure from that town to undertake new and more important duties at Edinburgh. Mr Sulley had during four years occupied the position of Surveyor of Taxes at Birkenhead, and has been promoted to a similar position within the Metropolitan City of Edinburgh, where he also becomes assessor of Linlithgowshire. The address and trinkets were presented in recognition not only of Mr Sulley's ability, knowledge and tact as a public official, but as an acknowledgement of his services to the district as author of a history of Birkenhead and of the Wirral Hundred of Cheshire.

The Courier - 3rd July 1928

Former Cupar Official Dead - Mr Philip Sulley's Services News of the death of Mr Philip Sulley, F.S.A, in a nursing home at Edinburgh yesterday, was received at Cupar with feeling of regret. Mr Sulley went to Cupar over 30 years ago as Surveyor of Taxes and County Assessor, and held the position for 10 years, when he was transferred to Galashiels. He never lost his connection with Fife, and was a frequent visitor. Since his retiral from Government service Mr Sulley had built up a good business as an income tax expert, and had a wide clientele in Fife and the Border district. During the time Mr Sulley was in Cupar he identified himself with public life, and was well known over a wide area. During the Boer War he worked continuously for Fife funds, and raised a large sum by lecturing on Burns. A member of the Executive of the Ayr Auld Brig restoration, he also raised a lot of money for that project. During the Great War Mr Sulley did much valuable work as a recruiting speaker. He started and managed the Morayshire Seaforths Comfort Fund, and was the prime mover of the Gordon Castle war fete, the most successful affair of the kind in the North of Scotland, by which £9000 was cleared for the Seaforths and Gordons and their prisoners of war. Three of his sons fought in the war, the younger of whom was killed in September, 1916. His second son, who was associated with him in his income tax business, was seriously wounded. Literary Tastes - A Burns enthusiast of the first rank, Mr Sulley, who for a time was secretary of the Cupar Burns Club, was hon. secretary of the National Burns Centenary at Dumfries in 1916, and came much in contact at that time with the Earl of Rosebery, who was the president. He had few equals as a writer and lecturer on Burns. Of strong literary tastes, Mr Sulley was the author of several works including an exhaustive history of Birkenhead and "Our Burgh" the latter a work dealing whimsically with many people he had met in the course of his career. Deceased was a keen Freemason, and was a Past Master of Lodge Cupar o' Fife (No.19). While in Cupar he gave liberal support to all the Cupar sporting clubs, and he officiated as secretary of Cupar Curling Club for a time, and was a member of the committee of the Cricket Club and now defunct Cupar Rugby Club. A native of Nottingham, Mr Sulley began his Government service at Birkenhead, but spent the bulk of his life in Scotland. He was in his 68th year, and is survived by his widow, a daughter and three sons.