Jonathan Brownill was baptised in Sheffield on 23 May 1774, the son of James (a cutler).  He was the brother of John Brownill.  Jonathan Brownill & Co was listed in 1815 as a table knife manufacturer in Red Hill (a factory mentioned in Leader, 1876¹).  Brownill’s partners were John and Bartholomew Hounsfield.  They dissolved their partnership in 1819.  By 1822, Jonathan Brownill (later the name was more usually spelled as Brownhill) had moved to Allen Street.  Brownhill then traded in Fargate until 1824, when his stock of table cutlery and tools was sold to pay his creditors (Sheffield Independent, 6 March 1824).  Thereafter, the only Jonathan Brownhill listed was a stag and bone scale cutter in Grindle-gate. 

Brownhill’s claim to contemporary fame was a patent he registered in 1828 for the so-called ‘balance knife’.  This had a leaded handle and a projecting shoulder, so that the table knife rested on the handle and the shoulder, so that the blade did not touch the table cloth.  In 1828, he also patented with J. C. Hobson a fork design, which included a knife sharpener.  Another patent was for raising vessels by using counterbalances of boxes or vessels filled with water.  When Jonathan Brownhill, Hoyle Street, died on 17 July 1830 (aged 55), The Sheffield Independent praised him as an ‘ingenious individual’.  He was buried in St. Peter’s churchyard.

^1. Leader, Robert E, Reminiscences of Old Sheffield (Sheffield, 2nd edn 1876)