John Clarke & Son Ltd
In 1848, 43-year-old John Clarke launched a cutlery business in Harvest Lane in Neepsend. Clarke apparently entered the trade late in life. An apprenticeship indenture (once in possession of the late Jim Taylor in the USA) stated that John Clarke (the son of John, a mason) was apprenticed to Octavius Twigg, a razor maker. The indenture (listed in Leader, 1905-6) showed that Clarke was granted his Freedom in 1856, with the mark ‘NEVA’. By the 1860s, Thomas (Clarke’s son by his wife El....
