Born in Sheffield in about 1787, Jonathan Birks was in business by 1833 as Jonathan Birks & Son, razor manufacturer and studder of cutlery, Earl Street.  Jonathan apparently had three sons by his wife Hannah:  John, James, and Joseph, who joined him as razor makers.  By 1834, Birks had moved to Porter Street; then in the late 1840s, to a yard in Chester Street.   The Census (1851) shows that Birks employed only one man.  Jonathan’s wife, Hannah, died from asthma on 27 December 1853, aged 66, and was buried in the General Cemetery.  At the end of that decade, Jonathan appears to have retired to live with his son Joseph and family in Mansfield.  Joseph had become a tobacconist.  The firm had been renamed James Birks & Son, Chester Street, with son James living in Broad Street Lane.  It had ceased trading by 1865.  Jonathan Birks died in Leeming Street, Mansfield, on 14 October 1870, aged 84.