In 1838, Francis Cluley announced the transfer of his surgical instrument business to ‘confidential assistant’, Thomas Ellis (Sheffield Independent, 9 June 1838).  Joseph, his brother, joined him in T. & J. Ellis.   They parted within months and Joseph continued alone.  Apparently, the brothers were the sons of Thomas and Ann.  Apprenticeship and trade mark records suggest that Thomas Sen. became a Freeman in 1802; and son, Joseph, in 1857, after apprenticeship to ‘father and mother’ (Leader, 1905-06¹).  The baptism in 1803 of Joseph Ellis, the son of Thomas (a grinder) and Ann, at Lee Croft Chapel may be relevant.  In the 1820s, Joseph, too, was a grinder, but by 1834 was an ironmonger in Westbar.  In 1837, Thomas Ellis was a surgical instrument maker in Cheney Row.  This was presumably Joseph’s brother (possibly baptised in 1807)

Robson’s Birmingham & Sheffield directory (1839), announced J. Ellis as ‘successor’ to Cluley, for whom he had worked ‘constantly … upwards of twenty years’.  By 1845, Joseph was in Spring Street as a manufacturer of surgeon’s instruments, trusses, stomach pumps, and ‘all kinds of instruments for deformities’.  Trade must have been modest, as Joseph was also publican at the Blue Pig in Workhouse Lane.  His wife, Catherine, died on 28 July 1848, aged 53.  Joseph died on 6 August 1858, aged 56, and was buried in the General Cemetery in an unconsecrated grave.   His brother Thomas’ later life is unclear: he may have married in London and returned to Sheffield to work as a traveller until his death in 1880.  Joseph Ellis & Son, Spring Street, continued under Thomas Webster Ellis (1827-1882).  This was Joseph’s only son, who became a Freeman in 1860.  He advertised in a Birmingham directory in 1867, but two years later was bankrupt.  In 1871, Joseph Ellis, Son, & Paramore was formed in Spring Street.  The new partner was William Paramore (c.1840-1905).  He was a cashier in 1862, when he married Lydia, the daughter of Joseph Deakin.   Paramore split with Ellis in 1874.  The latter left Sheffield and launched Joseph Ellis & Son (‘established 1800’) as a manufacturing cutlers, surgical and dental instrument maker, and electro-plate warehouseman, Queen Street, Exeter (Western Times, 27 June 1874).  He was soon insolvent, but found work as a chemical broker.   He died on 5 May 1882 at his residence in Castle Street, Exeter.

Spring Street Works continued under William Paramore as a maker of surgical instruments and other medical requisites (an advertisement described the firm as ‘artists in deformity’).  In the 1870s, the firm advertised frequently.  Its trusses and other appliances ‘pertaining to deformity’ were ‘executed on the premises by experienced London Workmen.  A Female to attend the ladies’  (Sheffield Independent, 22 December 1874).  William later lived at Broughton Road, Owlerton, where his neighbours included the Jinkinsons, who owned a joiners’ tool factory.  Paramore recruited one of the family and acquired the business.  William Paramore died on 7 May 1905, aged 65.  He was buried in Ecclesall.  His estate (which included the Jinkinson assets) was worth £26,785.   His son, Joseph William Paramore (1868-1954), had joined the company, aged 16.   

By 1914, Ellis Son & Paramore was at Spring Street Works (off Corporation Street) and at Devonshire Street (‘the Ladies’ West End branch’).  It became a private limited company in 1937, with £6,000 capital.  The managing director, J. W. Paramore, died on 16 January 1954, aged 86, after seventy years’ service – though an obituary noted that ‘of late, he had not been very active in its affairs’ (Quality, February 1954).  He left £15,291.  The firm traded until the 1970s and was dissolved in 2005.  The trade mark (formerly Cluley’s) was a cross in shield.  A former director tried to reconstruct the firm’s history, but confessed that his efforts were ‘doubtless somewhat inaccurate’ (Willcox, 1982²).  That comment was accurate, however.

^1. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)
^2. Willcox, E, ‘The Families of Ellis & Paramore’, typescript in Sheffield City Library Local Studies