The Hounsfields came from Holmesfield, near Chesterfield.  George Hounsfield (1737-1801) settled in Sheffield as a merchant in Westbar.  Through his business and by marriage to a wealthy heiress – Elizabeth née Twigg – he built up a substantial fortune.  He lived at Wadsley House, Ecclesfield.   According to a pedigree in Hunter (1875)¹, he died on 26 May 1801 and was buried in the family vault at St Peter & St Paul parish church.  According to the burial register, his occupation was farmer; but business partnership records listed him as a cast metal, knife, and fork manufacturer.  The family tombstone has survived.   

Three of his sons – John (1761-1821), Ezra (1764-1813), and Bartholomew (1774-1841) – became merchants.   John and Bartholomew operated in Pond Street as John Hounsfield & Co.   Their activities were directly related to cutlery and hardware.  Between about 1786 and 1814, they were in partnership with the Micklethwaites in Pond Street (see Benjamin Micklethwaite); and until 1819 with Jonathan Brownill, a table knife manufacturer.  They also partnered James and Thomas Barlow, scissors manufacturers, in James Barlow & Co.  That involvement ended in 1819.  In 1797, Ezra moved to New York as his brothers’ agent.   He made a fortune from the hardware trade and invested in so much property in Jefferson County, New York, that a town was named after him on the edge of Lake Ontario.  Ezra died in New York on 6 March 1813.   

John Hounsfield became Master Cutler in 1819.  Leader (1905-06)² had nothing to say about him, except that the Company of Cutlers later acquired his portrait.  He died on 22 March 1821 and was buried at St Peter & St Paul.  In the 1820s and 1830s, Bartholomew continued the Pond Street business as J.& B.Hounsfield.   Besides trading with America, Bartholomew developed widespread interests.  In 1821, he began an association with James Chesterman, who needed capital for the launch of his measuring-tape business.  In the late 1820s, Bartholomew was involved in Philadelphia Steel Works in Sheffield.  He registered a silver mark in 1831.  His interests also encompassed coal mining, in partnership with Thomas Dunn.  He lived at Clough House and died there on 12 April 1841, aged 67.   He was buried in St Lawrence’s churchyard in Tinsley. 

^1. Hunter, Joseph, Hallamshire:  The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York  Revised edn by Alfred Gatty (Sheffield, 1869, 3rd edition, 1875) 

^2. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)