Charles Tagg (1787-1854) was baptised in Sheffield on 6 May 1787, the son of William Tagg (a cutler) and his wife, Ann.  Charles had an elder brother, William (baptised 16 January 1785).  Charles Tagg first appeared in a directory in 1821 at South Street.  By the following year, he was a pen knife maker at Surrey Street.  By 1828, he had workshop at Spurr’s Buildings, Arundel Street.   By the early 1830s, he was at Fitzwilliam Street; while William Tagg was a table knife manufacturer at Lambert Street.  Ann Tagg, presumably their mother, died at Lambert Street in 1832, aged 83.  William later moved to Westbar Green, where he combined work as a table knife manufacture with trade as a confectioner (he also sold British wines).

The lease on the properties occupied by Charles Tagg (and others) at Fitzwilliam Street was auctioned in 1840.  It included eight dwellings and workshops in the yard ‘containing three hearths, which are admirably adapted for carrying on the business of pen-knife cutler’ (Sheffield Independent, 5 September 1840).   During the 1840s, Charles moved to a workshop at Wellington Street.  In 1844, William informed the public that he was ‘declining the confectionery business’ and offered for sale his stock-in-trade and shop fixtures (Sheffield Independent, 25 May 1844).   He may have been sick, because he died on 4 October 1844.  A notice was soon posted of an auction at William’s premises at 44 Campo Lane of his stock-in-trade of table blades and forks; and his household effects (Sheffield Independent, 12 October 1844).

Charles had married Sophia Davis in 1807.  She died at Wellington Street, ‘much respected’, on 23 September 1846, ‘after a short but severe illness’ (Sheffield Independent, 3 October 1846).  According to the General Cemetery burial register, she died of ‘natural decay’.  In 1852, Charles was living at Trafalgar Street and trading from a Yard in adjacent Wellington Street.  Presumably, he was a ‘little mester’, since he is known to have had at least one employee.  His health, though, was poor.  He once wrote a testimonial for Ridal’s Pills, which he claimed had ameliorated his swollen legs: ‘from my knees to my feet was nearly one open sore’ (Sheffield Independent, 19 June 1852).  Charles died at Trafalgar Street of ‘natural decay’ on 30 April 1854, aged 67.   He was buried with the remains of Sophia in the General Cemetery.