...">
Hargreaves Smith trade marks. Image courtesy of Geoff Tweedale
The business was launched by William Hargreaves (1803-1874), who was the son of William Hargreaves of Colley & Hargreaves. In 1825, William Jun. had married Mary, the daughter of cutler Robert Tricket. He became involved in the running of Colley & Hargreaves, but after 1834 – when his father died – William went into business with his sister Lydia. By 1837, William & Lydia Hargreaves was listed in Eyre Lane as a merchant and table knife manufacturer. In 1839, Lydia married Ralph Neild, of Morris Brook, near Warrington, at a Friends Meeting House. The trio – William, Lydia, and Ralph – were briefly partners, but this was dissolved in 1839. Ralph Neild died at Morris Brook in 1849, aged 63, and Lydia returned to Sheffield to live with her brother at Broomhall Park. W. & L. Hargreaves continued to be listed at Eyre Lane, though whether Lydia had a direct interest in the business is unknown. In the Census (1851), she stated that her income was principally from railway shares. She died at Whitby on 11 October 1859, leaving under £2,000. Her brother was executor.
At the Great Exhibition in 1851, the Hargreaves’ displayed fine table, carving, and bread knives, including: ‘Coromandel-wood case, lined with crimson silk velvet, containing 12 table-knives, 12 dessert knives, and 1 pair of carvers – all with carved ivory handles, of three various designs, silver ferrules, and highly-polished steel blades’ (Great Exhibition … Official Descriptive Catalogue, 1851, ii). In the early 1850s, at the same Eyre Lane address, William Hargreaves & Co was also listed as an agent for Swedish iron.
In about 1856, the firm was restyled as Hargreaves, Smith & Co. Charles Edward Smith, living at Fir Vale, Pitsmoor, was the new partner. William was developing a strong American connection. Hargreaves had exhibited at the New York Exhibition in 1853 and within a couple of years he and Smith operated an office at Cliff Street, New York, in partnership with New York agents Edward Marshall and Henry Dickinson. The agency advertised as far afield as Detroit. These partnerships were dissolved in 1866, when Smith relinquished his interest (he died on 10 February 1871, aged 44). Hargreaves, though, still described himself as an ‘American merchant’.
By 1864, Isaac Milner (another Quaker) had become partner. He had been born in Sheffield on 18 September 1834, the son of Charles Milner, an ironmonger in Fargate. Isaac became head of the company after William Hargreaves collapsed and died at the Turkish Baths in Norfolk Street on 23 May 1874, aged 70. He was unmarried, but left charitable legacies of £4,900 (from an estate under £30,000). He was buried in the Quaker burial ground in Meetinghouse Lane, Woodhouse.
Milner continued as a ‘South American merchant’ and in 1881 had a staff of four. He became a JP in 1893 and retired in 1896, when his former firm moved from 28 Eyre Lane to West Street Lane. It was now mostly involved with steel and edge tools. In 1910, Milner became chairman of Sheffield Savings Bank. Isaac Milner, Kenwood Road, died on 6 August 1926, aged 91. He left £47,656 and was buried in Abbey Lane Cemetery. In 1927, Marsh Bros acquired the assets and continued to use the name ‘Hargreaves, Smith & Co’ and its marks – J. SMITH & CO’ and ‘FRYERS’ – until the end of the 1950s.