This firm was a merchant and ‘manufacturer’ of cutlery, edge tools, and steel.  It was listed in Eyre Lane between 1839 and 1849.  The originator of the business was Thomas Mottram (c.1772-1846), who apparently operated from Eyre Lane in the 1820s (the 1822 directory listed Mottram & Greaves, merchant, Eyre Lane).   Thomas married Ruth Jepson and had two sons – Matthew and Henry (the latter born in 1812).   Thomas Mottram, Park Field, died on 5 October 1846, aged 74.  Apparently, the turnover of the business had reached over £100,000 a year by the date of Mottram’s death and it was a well-known enterprise.  

By 1846, other partners had joined Matthew and Henry Mottram.  These included George Smith Jun., Henry Simpson, and William Taylor.  Smith withdrew in 1847.  By 1852, the firm had been restyled Mottram, Taylor & Co, merchant, Eyre Lane.  In 1858, however, it was bankrupt and had to be bailed out by Naylor, Vickers & Co (Sheffield Independent, 10 April 1858).  At a meeting held in Mottram’s warehouse in Arundel Street, it was stated that the liabilities were £8,200.  The sale of the ‘Freehold Manufactory’ at Arundel Street / Eyre Lane – including warehouses, trade premises, and dwelling houses – was advertised in The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 25 May 1858.

Matthew Mottram died in Washington, DC, on 19 February 1862; and Henry moved to Hull (where in 1848 he had married Elizabeth Maria née Beilby).  He took up seed crushing with Charles Henry Beilby, but was declared bankrupt in 1861.  By 1881, he was a retired merchant living in Hull and may have died in Bridlington in 1884, aged 72.  

In the 1860s, Thomas Mottram & Sons continued as a Spanish and American merchant, with partners Anne Naylor, William Taylor, and John Weston Taylor.  In 1868, the firm advertised in the Sheffield directory.  The address was Regent Terrace, with William Taylor as the partner.  In 1871, John Francis Taylor (living in Nile Street, Broomhill) operated the business.  It then appears to have ceased trading.  John Weston Taylor, Endcliffe Crescent, was buried in Ecclesall on 21 March 1907, aged 67.   The corporate mark was ‘MOTTRAM 1741’.