The first printed reference to these scissors makers was in The London Gazette, 20 December 1803.  They were in partnership and were presumably brothers.  They had filed for bankruptcy.  The apprenticeship records of the Company of Cutlers provide further details.  Both Robert and Joseph had been apprenticed to Robert Hinchliffe (presumably the noted scissors maker).  They were the sons of James, who (according to Robert’s details) was a husbandman at Clipston Lodge, an estate, near Market Harborough.  Joseph became a Freeman in 1796; Robert in 1797 (Leader, 1905-06¹).  After the bankruptcy, Robert was listed in 1811 as a fine scissors manufacturer at Norfolk Street.  By 1812 he was insolvent again and, although he continued to pay off his debts for a few years, his name (and Joseph’s) disappear from Sheffield directories as scissors makers.  Their subsequent history is so far untraced.

^1. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)