John Corker was listed in the Sheffield directory (1787) as a fine scissors manufacturer at Meadow Street.  His trade mark was a maltese cross and a device resembling two conjoined and reversed ‘Cs’.  Almost nothing is known about his background, though the apprenticeship records of the Company of Cutlers listed a candidate: John Corker, the son of Joseph (a scissorsmith), who was apprenticed to another scissorsmith, Thomas Matthews, in 1867.  He became a Freeman in 1774.

In 1788, however, John Corker at Meadow Street was bankrupt.   It seems that Corker was involved with James Barlow & Co.  John Barlow (Meadow Street) and William Deakin (at Attercliffe) were Corker’s bankruptcy assignees.   Certainly, Corker, Barlow, and Deakin occupied the same premises in Meadow Street.  At the end of 1788, Messrs Deakin & Barlow and the assignees of John Corker offered for sale at Meadow Street their stock in trade and ‘a large and good assortment of scissors and a quantity of tools for carrying on the business of a scissor smith’ (Sheffield Register, 8 November 1788).  This was followed by the sale of several leasehold houses, workshops, smithies, and a warehouse (Sheffield Register, 13 December 1788).   Corker’s subsequent life and career have not been traced.