The Hensons were scissors makers, who combined their trade with victualing.  John Henson Sen. (c.1763-1837) was presumably the scissors maker listed in Leader (1905-06)¹ as the son of Joseph, an innkeeper.  He was apprenticed first to Parkin Willoughby and then to Benjamin Vickers, before the granting of his Freedom in 1783.  Henson was listed in a directory (1825) as a scissors manufacturer in the Wicker.  By 1828, he was victualler at the Bay Childers – a public house at 4 Bridge Street.  Local historians have puzzled over this name (another Bay Childers was in High Street), but it was the name of a famous race horse owned by the Duke of Devonshire.  By his wife, Mary (c.1777-1850), John had two sons: John (1 September 1803-1838) and (apparently) Joseph (c.1803-1854).  The Sheffield Independent, Saturday, 28 January 1837, reported the death of John Henson Sen. ‘on Thursday week, after a painful and protracted illness of more than seven years’.  It was said that ‘few excelled him in his line of work as a scissor smith, a proof of which he has left behind him in Messrs Rodgers & Sons’ Show Rooms, viz.  one dozen scissors, perfect in all their parts and beautiful in their workmanship, which do not weight one grain’.  He was buried in St Peter’s churchyard.  

By 1833, John Jun and Joseph were listed as scissors makers at a court in Willey Street, with their home address as 4 Bridge Street.  John followed his father’s trade as a ‘fancy’ scissors maker, but died on 9 November 1838, aged 35, after a ‘protracted and painful illness’.  According to The Sheffield Independent, 17 November 1838, John Henson was ‘one who excelled in his line of business.  As a monument to his ingenuity, there is now shewn in Messrs Rodgers’ showrooms, 24 pairs of scissors which weigh only one grain …’  He was buried in St Peter’s churchyard.  The last notice of Joseph Henson is in the registers of St Peter’s: his burial on 21 May 1854, aged 51.  His address was Trinity Street, which suggests he may have worked for George Butler.  On 4 May 1850, the press reported the death in Shalesmoor of Mary Henson, John Sen.’s ‘relict’, aged 73.

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