Joseph Pearce (c.1757-1838) was a cutler, who married Sarah Booth in 1787 and had two sons: John (bapt.  24 January 1796-1860) and Joseph Jun. (bapt.31 August 1788-1868).  Like their father, the sons became razor makers in Gibraltar Street, though Joseph Jun. later became a bookseller and stationer (information from Mike Osborn).  Joseph Pearce Sen. died on 3 February 1838, aged 81.  By the 1830s, John had moved to Angel Street/Snig Hill, where he combined razor manufacture with cutlery dealing; and briefly partnered Britannia smith Thomas Parkin.  In 1842, his only daughter, Ann, married Henry Hobson, who became Pearce’s manager.  In 1843, Pearce and Hobson answered charges at the Town Hall that they had marked blades of common steel as ‘cast steel’ (Sheffield Independent, 30 September 1843). 

In the Census (1851), John Pearce was a razor manufacturer in Angel Street, who employed nine men.  He died from ‘softening’ of the brain at Andover Street on 23 March 1860.  He was buried in the General Cemetery, leaving under £800.  Henry Hobson continued to trade as John Pearce & Co, cutlery dealers of Queen Street, until the late 1860s.  As late as 1919, Henry Hobson & Sons used the Pearce name and ‘JP’ mark from Eyre Lane.