To claim that Silas Winterbottom is an arch villain capable of the most awful deeds would open this website to a huge lawsuit – therefore no such claim shall be made (however true it may be). All we can do is offer you the following matters of fact and allow you to draw your own conclusions.

• Silas Winterbottom was thirteen years old when he was expelled from Oxley College for attempting to blackmail his Math teacher, Miss Honeysuckle. What exactly took place has been lost to history, but there were rumours involving a forged love letter, two dozen white roses, a kidnapped poodle and a small vile of poison. Miss Honeysuckle left Oxley College shortly after Silas was expelled and joined a silent order of Nuns.
• When Silas’ father - Truman Winterbottom – heard of his son’s expulsion he was furious. Truman threatened to cut his son out of his Will. The following day Truman was killed in a most peculiar fashion – crushed to death as he enjoyed his regular afternoon nap in the Winterbottom summer house. A lengthy police investigation failed to explain how the support beams of the wooden house came to collapse simultaneously bringing the entire building tumbling down on top of the sleeping man. Silas Winterbottom did not attend his father’s funeral.
• Silas was a young man of twenty-two when he inherited the Sommerset Estate from his fiancé, Lady Cornelia Bloom, who died tragically (and rather mysteriously) when her car crashed into a fallen tree branch. Silas first visited Sommerset as a boy of eleven and vowed even then that one day he would be the Master of Sommerset. Enough said.
• Several years ago tragedy again struck the Winterbottom family. Silas’ brother Nathanial was devastated when his wife was trampled to death by an elephant at a most disreputable circus. Shortly after that he was fired from his job at a leading men’s shoe store. With a young daughter, Isabella, to take care of and a mountain of bills to pay, Nathanial wrote a heartfelt letter to his older brother Silas, begging him for a small loan so that he and his daughter could continue to eat. Silas responded quickly, advising Nathanial to give up his daughter for adoption as she was an unnecessary expense. When Nathanial refused, Silas sent his brother a one dollar bill and encouraged him to invest it wisely.
• Silas has so many enemies that he is shadowed day and night by his pet crocodile Thorn. To date Thorn has eaten three hired assassins, one burglar and a carnival clown.

Silas Winterbottom has a long history and we are determined to shed light on the dark shadows of his past. Keep an eye on the Sommerset Archives for more details …