The family came from Howbrook, near Wortley.  Joseph Parkin was Master Cutler in 1752.  His sons included Josephus (c.1732-1812), James, and John (Clay, vol.  IV, 1896¹).   Apparently, Josephus purchased his Freedom in 1755.  However, Parkin was a common name in the Sheffield cutlery trades and following this branch of the family in directories is confusing.  Josephus Parkin appeared in the Sheffield directory (1774) as a cutler in Silver Street (one of a network of streets near the parish church).  Josephus’ trade mark was an arrow head and the letter ‘L’.  In the same directory, Parkin & Son was a manufacturer of razors and pen knives in nearby Campo Lane (trade mark ‘HOLLAND’).  

Josephus Parkin was Master Cutler in 1779 and April to August 1781, after the death of his successor, John Rowbotham.  In 1786, a partnership between Josephus and James Parkin was dissolved.  Their partner and their brother, John, had died (possibly in 1785:  the parish church register recorded the burial of John Parkin on 6 December).  In the following year, Josephus Parkin was trading in razors and also ‘jacks’ at Campo Lane, using the ‘HOLLAND’ mark.   A ground plan of Parkin’s workshops has survived (Sheffield Local Studies Library: Picture Sheffield), which shows them at the corner of Campo Lane and Vicar Lane.  Parkin’s dwelling house on the corner with Lee Croft had a fine staircase and an adjacent garden (Leader, 1905²).   The workshops, though, were cramped (measuring 225 square yards).  Inevitably.  Parkin relied on outworkers.  In 1794, he had twelve troughs for grinding at Malin Bridge on the River Loxley (Hatfield, 2002³).

In 1797, Josephus Parkin & Son (with the arrow head and L mark) was listed as a pen and pocket knife and razor manufacturer at Campo Lane.  Josephus Parkin died on 26 January 1812, aged 79, and was buried in the parish churchyard.   By his wife, Hannah, Josephus had a son, John.   He had been apprenticed to his father and had married in 1786, Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter Spurr.  Presumably, he continued his father’s business, though the firm no longer appeared in directories.   The family owned substantial property.  The sale of Josephus’ estate included five dwelling houses in Pond Street and Flat Street; two dwelling houses, stable, and workshops on the corner of Campo Lane and Lee Croft; and two workshops in Campo Lane, occupied by William Parkin and Widow Marshall (Sheffield Independent, 12 March 1825).   Josephus’s great-grandson, William, became a partner in Parkin & Marshall.

^1. Clay, John W (ed), Familiae Minorum Gentium  (London, 4 vols, 1894-6)

^2. Leader, R E, Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century (Sheffield, 2nd edn, 1905)

^3. Hatfield, Julia Elizabeth, ‘Continuity and Change in a Pennine Community: The Township of Stannington c1660-c1900’ (Sheffield University PhD, 2002)