In 1831, a tourist paddle-steamer – The Rothsay Castle – set out from Liverpool for the resort of Beaumaris on the island of Anglesey.  Stormy weather, and the incompetence of a drunken crew, forced the ship aground in the Menai Straits.  In the disaster, 130 lives were lost.  One of the survivors was William Broadhurst, a Sheffield table knife manufacturer, who was travelling with his daughters.  After six hours in the water, William was saved by clinging to a small raft of wood.  However, his daughters, Ellen and Margaret, drowned (Adshead, 1834¹). 

By 1817, William Broadhurst (c.1787-1864) had apparently been involved in Peter Cadman, Son, & Broadhurst – a cutler, merchant, and factor (see Peter Cadman).  When this was dissolved in 1828, Broadhurst started his own business in Charles Street, which was listed in 1833 as a merchant, steel converter, and manufacturer of table, butcher, shoe knives, and files and saws.  By 1841, his firm had moved to Westfield Terrace.  A year later, Broadhurst was Master Cutler.  In 1845, his son, William Marshall Broadhurst (1819-1892), joined the business.  W. Broadhurst & Son marketed the patented table cutlery of Jones & Co. Broadhurst used the ‘NON*XLL’ mark (granted in 1838), which was stamped on the company’s Bowie knives (Adams et al, 1990²).  In 1851, William Broadhurst employed seventeen men and five boys. One apprentice was George B. Bingley (see Bingley, Worrall & Co).

In 1855, however, William and Marshall became bankrupt.  Old and infirm, William applied for support to the Hardware Pension Society (Sheffield Independent, 20 December 1856).  In 1860, ‘NON*XLL’ was sold to Unwin & Rodgers.  Nevertheless, in the early 1860s ‘William Broadhurst’ was listed at Westfield Works, Broomhall Street (curiously, still using ‘NON*XLL’).  In 1861, William Broadhurst told the Census that he employed a dozen men and two boys.  He died at Hermitage Street on 8 January 1864, aged 76.  He left effects under £1,000.  In the early 1850s, Broadhurst’s other son, Philip Henry Broadhurst (1822-1881), had employed seven workmen as a table knife manufacturer in Bowdon Street.  He then worked as an estate and shipping agent, before launching ‘Philip Henry Broadhurst’ as a table, pen, pocket cutlery, and hardware manufacturer at Westfield Works.  After his father’s death, he advertised in 1865 as ‘late W. Broadhurst’.  However, by 1871 Philip has moved to Birkenhead.  He died there on 1 April 1881, when he was a stationer and clerk in a parcel office.  His brother, Marshall Broadhurst, remained in Sheffield and in about 1860 became an agent for Jukes Coulson.  He had retired by 1881 and died on 16 November 1892, aged 72.  Like his father, he was buried in the General Cemetery.

^1. Adshead, J, A Circumstantial Narrative of the Wreck of the Rothsay Steam Packet (London, 1834)

^2. Adams, W, Voyles, J  B, and Moss, T, The Antique Bowie Knife Book (Conyers, Georgia, 1990)