Since the early eighteenth century, the Dysons had been farmers / cutlers at Shotnell, a farmstead at Birley Carr (information from Michael Dyson, 2012).  William Dyson Sen. (1725-1799) had been apprenticed to John Eyre, a cutler at Grenoside, and became a Freeman in 1751.   He was listed in 1774 as a maker of ‘spotted knives’.   In 1787, he was joined in the directory by his son, William Dyson Jun. (1758-1841), who made common pen and pocket knives.  Their trade marks were, respectively, ‘DYSON’ and ‘AJAX’ (the latter registered in 1779, when William Jun. became a Freeman).   William Jun. was a cutler at Shotnell until his death on 11 August 1841, aged 83.  The Dysons’ grave is in St Mary’s churchyard, Ecclesfield.  Shotnell was offered for the sale in The Sheffield Independent, 6 November 1841 – apparently amongst the assets of the bankrupt Kirkby, Gregory.   William Jun.’s son, John (1789-1873), concentrated on farming and eventually retired to Sheffield, where by 1871 he was living with his daughter, Ann, and her husband George Whitaker.