According to Leader (1876¹, 1905²), the Dunns came from Boston, Lincolnshire.  Thomas Dunn moved to Malin Bridge, Sheffield, in 1730 and became a Freeman in 1734.  His son was William Dunn (1747-1808), who was apprenticed to his father and became a Freeman in 1768 or 1770.   William Dunn & Co was listed in 1787 as cutlers in Grindlegate in the town centre, using the mark ‘W’ and ‘DUNN’.  In 1797, William Dunn was based in Scotland Street.  He manufactured table knives, with bone, tortoiseshell, and black and green Japanned handles.  William combined cutlery with work as an engineer (advising, for example, on canals) and also lectured on mathematics and on electricity, which ‘had great charms for him’ (Sheffield Independent, 10 January 1871).  By 1800, he began acquiring coal interests (Smith, 2007³).

Leader recounted how William was confirmed in a tavern by the Archbishop of York, because he and his father, Thomas, had arrived too late for the church service.  Ironically, William later married a wife (Mary), whose staunch Nonconformity was instilled in their son, Thomas (1774-1839).  The latter had been apprenticed to William and had been granted his Freedom in 1803.   Thomas became a table knife manufacturer in Solly Street.  William died at his son’s house in Red Hill on 23 January 1808, aged 61, and was buried in St Peter & St Paul churchyard.  

Thomas’s only son was also named Thomas (1802-1871).  He was trained in cutlery in his father’s workshop, but after 1820 the family became increasingly involved in coal mining.  Thomas Sen. was a partner with Bartholo-mew Hounsfield (see J. & B. Hounsfield), John Wilson, and William Jeffcock in Hounsfield, Wilson & Co (Sheffield Coal Company).   Thomas Sen. became Master Cutler in 1832 and was often described (inaccurately) as the first Dissenter to hold that position.  Later in life Thonas Dunn described himself as a coal master.  He was said to have worked so hard that he rarely saw his home in daylight.  He died on 28 August 1839, aged 64, at the Warwick Arms Hotel, Warwick, from an enlarged prostate (according to the General Cemetery burial register).  His son continued as a coal owner and became a JP, Alderman and Mayor of Sheffield.  He died at Richmond Hill on 8 January 1871, aged 69, and was buried at Handsworth.   He left under £45,000.  The Sheffield Independent, 14 January 1871, devoted three columns of print to his life; and Leader (1876)¹ also contains a profile.

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

^2. Leader, R E, Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century (Sheffield, 2nd edn, 1905)

^3. Smith, D J, ‘The World of William Dunn, Cutler and Engineer 1747-1808’, THAS 24 (2007)