The Hunters came from Ecclesfield and liked naming their sons Michael.  Three became Master Cutler in the late nineteenth century.  Michael Hunter I (1724-18 June 1771) was a prosperous factor or ‘hardware man’.  He later moved to Sheffield – possibly in about 1760 – and sold materials to cutlers from a warehouse in Milk Street (Sheffield Independent, 4 November 1876).  His son, Michael Hunter II (1759-1831), also became a merchant.  Presumably, the latter was the cutler listed in Leader (1905-6), who was apprenticed to Samuel Roberts, a cutler, silversmith, and plater in New Church Street.  Hunter became a Freeman in 1780.  According to one source, that was the date Hunter & Son began, with the formation of Hunter & Twigg (Men of the Period, 1896).  This partnership involved Michael Hunter II and Joshua Twigg.  The firm registered a silver mark as a plate manufacturer from Cheney Square in 1781.  At one point, J.P. Silverside was a partner, but he withdrew in 1786.  In 1787, Hunter & Twigg was listed as a silver cutler in Bailey Field, using the trade mark ‘WATCH HUMBLE’.

Hunter & Twigg was dissolved in 1789, when Michael Hunter apparently next partnered James Richardson.  This ended in 1806 and thereafter Hunter seems to have traded alone.  By 1811, he was a table knife manufacturer in Burgess Street.  The firm began to expand under his son, Michael Hunter III (1800-1886), who had been born on 18 March 1800 in Burgess Street and was the half-brother of Joseph Hunter (1783-1861), the local antiquarian, whose Hallamshire contains a family tree and was originally a cutler (see Hatfield & Hunter) 

In 1831, Michael III succeeded to the business after the death of his father from a stroke on 29 January.  He was buried at Upper (Unitarian) Chapel, Norfolk Street.  By then, Hunter’s was manufacturing table knives in the Wicker.  An earlier partnership between Michael and his brother, Alfred Hunter, which made table knife knives in Willey Street, Wicker, was dissolved in 1829.  Michael Hunter and Alexander Hunter were henceforth listed at that address.  During the 1830s, the firm’s address was Sheldon Row in the Wicker, where it was listed at Talbot Works as a table knife manufacturer.  When Hunter became Master Cutler in 1852, the firm’s address was Talbot Works, Andrew Street, off the Wicker.  Between 1849 and 1852, Hunter partnered Edward Gillbee in Hunter, Son & Gillbee.

Michael Hunter III’s workforce was apparently well over a hundred by the early 1840s.  According to the Census, it grew from 130 men in 1851 to 300 in 1861.  Judging by the column inches in the local press devoted to Hunter and his workers, his relationship with them was often fractious.  Disputes over wages, contracts, and work practices seem to have been more common than at other companies.  In about 1850, Hunter was apparently the first to apply the ‘Yankee notion’ of forging knife blades under tilt hammers.  This was said to be ‘in consequence of the arbitrary conduct of their men, who would only work under certain conditions, and as such times as suited their convenience.  The men have gone elsewhere, and the machines, regardless of trades unions, keep rattling away at the most savage rate’ (Burn, 1852).  Hunter’s American forging machines were said to have been capable of producing a thousand table-knife blades daily (Sheffield Independent, 27 June 1857).  Hunter was also described as the first to apply circular saws to cut knife handles (a claim also made for Ellin). 

Michael Hunter III died at Burn Oaks, Pitsmoor, on 15 March 1886, aged 86. He was buried at Underbank Unitarian Chapel, Stannington, where the Hunters' tomb still stands.  An obituarist recalled that he had ‘waged incessant war with the trades’ unions’ and was ‘rough and blunt in manner’ – at least on the outside (Sheffield Independent, 16 March 1886).  He left £2,118.  His daughters – Sophia (1822-1849) and Charlotte (1826-1874) – both married, in their turn, Edward Mappin.

In the late nineteenth century, Michael Hunter IV (1821-1898) continued to expand the business.  He was born on 17 February 1821 in the Wicker and left school when he was about 14 to enter his father’s workshops.  He took over the business after 1844, when his father became involved in public affairs (Manning, 1900).  He became sole partner in 1872, when his father retired (and when the firm employed 150 men and 50 boys).  Hunter took Sam V. Wheatley and William Clarke (metal manufacturer, William Street) into partnership, though this ended in 1878.  In 1847, Michael Hunter IV married Martha, the eldest daughter of John Wilson Hawksworth, who was a partner in Wilson, Hawksworth, Ellison & Co.  This may have been a source for Hunter’s steel and tools.  He later became a senior partner in the steel firm.

Hunter’s corporate marks were the word/picture ‘Bugle’, granted in 1760; ‘Bison’ with the Spanish word ‘FUERTE’ (meaning strong); and ‘Llama’, which was acquired from Ecroyd.  The firm made (or factored) a wide range of cutlery:  table and butchers’ knives, spear knives, razors, pen and pocket knives, and sportsman’s and gardeners’ knives, and hay knives.  Skates, files, edge tools, and electro-plated and Britannia metal goods were also stocked.  The firm was listed in directories as a steel converter and refiner.  As Hunter’s trade marks indicated, the trade was global.  Australia and South America were key export markets, but Hunter’s also had agencies in Cape Town, Montreal, and Hamburg.  In London, Hunter’s products were sold in Queen Street, Cheapside.

Michael Hunter IV became Mayor, Alderman, JP, and Master Cutler (1860).  He died on 8 December 1898, aged 77, and left over £60,000.  He was buried at Underbank Unitarian Chapel, Stannington, though he worshipped at Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street (inside which a plaque commemorates four Hunter generations, who worshipped there).  His son, Michael Joseph Hunter V (1857-1926), was educated at University College School, London, before joining the family firm as an apprentice, aged seventeen.  In 1883, he was made a partner and took over after his father’s death.  The firm became a limited liability company in 1899 (capital £25,000), with himself as chairman and Thomas T. Hardy (d. 25 February 1910) as managing director.  The Master Cutlership followed in 1903.

In the 1900s, Hunter’s acquired the assets of Parkin & Marshall and Slack & Grinold.  However, the company – now based in Reed Street – lost its dynamism.  By 1910, the assets had been acquired by Needham, Veall & Tyzack, and Walter Tyzack liquidated the company.  Hunter’s marks were later acquired by Slater.  Perhaps the Hunters had lost interest in manufacturing.  Michael J. Hunter V had inherited Stoke Hall, a beautiful country estate on the banks of the River Derwent in Derbyshire, which his father had bought in 1884.  He became involved in country pursuits.  It was said that his ‘favourite relaxation was a good horse … and [he] was known for years as a keen rider to hounds’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 12 November 1926).  He married Kate, the second daughter of Henry Harrison (see Harrison Bros & Howson).  Michael J. Hunter V died at his residence, Carisbrooke, Oakholme Road, on 11 November 1926 and was buried in Ecclesall.  He left a fortune of £67,266, not including settled land.