Joseph Axelby (c.1823 - 1893) was a Stannington-born table knife grinder (also enumerated in the Census in 1861 as a grocer).  His wife was Keturah Revitt (7 September 1822 - 30 April 1896).  In 1859, he had spent two weeks in Wakefield jail, after he and several table knife grinders had intimidated a fellow worker for non-payment of union dues (Sheffield Independent, 10 September 1859 p10).  Later Joseph was a cutlery manager at Practical Cutlery Co (see Edward Bird & Co).  Joseph Axelby, cutlery manufacturer, was listed in directories by the late 1880s. 

Joseph is recorded as having 5 sons and two daughters.  Seventy-year-old Joseph died on 17 March 1893  at 27 Ashley Road and was buried in the General Cemetery, leaving £418.  His wife Keturah, living at 60 Sharrow Street, died three years later on 30 April 1896.

One of the sons was John Hornby Axelby (6 April 1851 - 27 September 1924). The business was re-styled J. H. Axelby & Sons, table knife manufacturers, 107 Eyre Street (1911 White´s Directory of Sheffield & Rotherham).  John Hornby married Martha Lindley at Montgomery Wesleyan Chapel on 1 June 1884.  They had five sons and two daughters, John William (1885-1919), Joseph Hornby (1889-1893), Keturah Mary (1889-1890), Albert Ernest (1892-1893), Bernard Frederick (1895-1974), Frank (died at birth in 1897) and Alexandra Mary (died as a baby in 1901) .  The address was 148 Shoreham Street by 1919; and Napier Street in 1922.  Axelby’s apparently ceased trading in the 1920s.