NEWS that The Press recently reached the grand old age of 130 prompted reader Christine Dove to get in touch with this wonderful photograph of her great-great grandfather, John Lilley.

Mr Lilley, who died in February 1919 at the age of 91, was a newsagent and fancy ware dealer who lived above his shop at 14 Lawrence Street. And according to a cutting from the Mr Nobody’s Gossip column, published in the Yorkshire Evening Press on March 27, 1965, he sold the first ever copy of the Yorkshire Evening Press, on October 2, 1882.

Mrs Dove – who also lives just off Lawrence Street today – found the photograph of her great-great grandfather, along with the Mr Nobody’s Gossip cutting, when her mother Kathleen Little died in 1981. They were among her mother’s belongings.

At first, she thought the photograph showed her grandfather, John Henry Turner. But when researching her family tree she found obituaries of her great great grandfather, John Lilley, that had been published in both the Yorkshire Evening Press and York Herald.

The York Herald obit came complete with a photograph – and it was the same as the photograph she had found in her mother’s belongings. It was only then she realised who the man in her photograph was.

Mr Lilley was clearly a prosperous gentleman – he looks very dapper. And he was also well known in York.

The Yorkshire Evening Press obituary, dated February 28, 1919, describes him as “one of the most popular figures in the city of York”.

It goes on to describe an extraordinary life in which Mr Lilley witnessed some of the most memorable events of 19th century history.

Mr Lilley was born in 1827, and brought up in Congleton. He came to live in Lawrence Street in 1846, setting up first as a master shoemaker, and then as a newsagent and dealer in fancy wares. He married Maria Precious in 1850 at St Denys’ Church, Walmgate, and the couple had 12 children before Maria died in 1870. Mr Lilley lived on for a further 49 years.

His obituary doesn’t mention the fact that he sold the first ever copy of the Yorkshire Evening Press, but it does describe his close connection with the newspaper.

When Queen Victoria died in January 1901 it said, Mr Lilley reported, as purchasing agent, that the Yorkshire Evening Press sold an extra 10,000 copies that day.

Mr Lilley had a marvellous memory, the obituary reports, and late in life used to tell stories about his earlier years that offer a fascinating glimpse back into history.

He was present when the Duke of Wellington opened Parliament in 1847. He was at Dover in 1848 when King Louis Philippe – who had been King of France for 18 years before being forced to flee because of the revolution which established the Second French Republic – landed in a coble boat in 1848 and he saw Queen Victoria arrive in York in 1854 to officially open the new railway station (which is now being converted into the city council’s new headquarters).

Mr Lilley also remembered the first York gala in 1858, and was present at the first Volunteer review held on Knavesmire, in about 1860.

Sadly, we don’t have photographs of any of those momentous events, but the City of York Council’s Imagine York archive does have a number of photographs of York in the 1880s, at about the time the Evening Press was launched.

They include a stunning photograph of crowds gathering for the official opening of Skeldergate Bridge on March 10, 1881, a regatta held for the opening of the bridge, and the large crowd gathered at the unveiling of a statue to George Leeman in Station Road on April 13, 1885. All events which Mr Lilley may well have witnessed.

• The Imagine York website has many stunning images of historic York. Visit imagineyork.co.uk