By the 1840s, this branch of the Hancock family included working cutlers in Nether Green, Ranmoor.  Samuel Hancock, a spring knife manufacturer, was born in Ecclesall in about 1816.  The Census (1851) enumerated him with his wife, Hannah, and son, Joseph, in Nether Green.  By 1859, Hancock advertised as ‘successor’ to S. & G. Stringer.  Joseph (born c. 1846) joined his father in Samuel Hancock & Son.  It apparently operated as a typical little-mester operation.  According to the Census (1881), Samuel and Joseph employed three men and a boy.   Samuel died on 6 January 1899, aged 83, and was buried in Fulwood (Hannah predeceased him in 1873, aged 63).   By 1901, Joseph was working as a commercial traveller and the assets of the firm (including the Stringer mark) had been acquired by Hale Bros, Snow Lane.