Benjamin Roebuck (1712-1796) was a merchant in Church Street.   He was the second son of John Roebuck, a merchant, and his wife, Sarah.  His brother was John Roebuck (1718-1794), co-founder of the Carron Company ironworks, and his great uncle was John Arthur Roebuck (1801-1879), the well-known Sheffield MP.   Benjamin’s business can be traced to 1750, when he joined his father and two brothers – Thomas and Ebenezer – as factors and makers of steel (Reade, 1939¹).  By 1861, Benjamin operated alone as a merchant in Church Street.  He traded in cutlery and shipped goods to the Continent.  In 1770, he also launched a bank and has been described as ‘possibly the first Sheffield banker’ (Leader, 1876²).  The bank failed eight years later, though Benjamin avoided bankruptcy and in 1780 completed the building of Meersbrook House (later the Ruskin Museum).  He was listed as a merchant in the directory (1774) and again in 1787, when the firm was styled B. Roebuck, B. Roebuck Jun, & Fenton, merchants, Church Lane.   

In 1793, Benjamin Jun. died ‘in the prime of life’ (Gentleman’s Magazine 63, Pt.  2, 1793).  Benjamin Sen. later lived in Bath and died there on 10 September 1796.  He was buried at Weston.   His other son, John, predeceased him; and neither of his sons had married.  However, his daughter, Elizabeth, had married Francis Fenton, who was his business partner and became Roebuck’s ‘successor’ (see Benjamin Fenton & Co).   In 1866, Roebuck’s old residence and premises in Church Street became the site of the Sheffield & Rotherham Bank.  Building work and the widening of the lanes around St Peter & St Paul brought to light ancient Roebuck (and Fenton) tombstones (Leader, 1905³).

^1. Reade, Aleyn Lyell, Johnsonian Gleanings: Part IX  A Further Miscellany (London, 1939)

^2. Leader, Robert E, Reminiscences of Old Sheffield (Sheffield, 2nd edn 1876)

^3. Leader, R E, Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century (Sheffield, 2nd edn, 1905)