Advertisment from 1862. Image courtesy of Geoff Tweedale.
The Moulson brothers were apparently the sons of Thomas Moulson, who lived in Bamford, Derbyshire. They included Joseph (1791-1838), Thomas (1792-1862), John (1795-1864), William (1798-1870), and Edwin (1800-1836). By 1822, J. & J. Moulson was listed in Surrey Street as a manufacturer of saws and joiners’ tools. All the brothers seem to have been active in the business, which by the early 1830s was at Union Works, Division Street. After Joseph and Edwin died in the 1830s, the firm was continued by Thomas, John, and William. Moulson Bros remained a specialist in saws and tools, such as joiners’ braces (Eaton, 19891), but it also traded in cutlery. Moulson Bros’ most prominent partner was Thomas Moulson, who became Master Cutler in 1854. At this time, the firm employed about eighty workers. Thomas was censured by the Company of Cutlers in his year of office for expressing the view after the Paris Exhibition (where he was a Juror) that Sheffield cutlery lagged behind France and Prussia (Sheffield Independent, 4 August 1855). ‘While foreigners have been progressing’, he argued, ‘we have been either stationary or going backwards’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 31 July 1855).
James Alfred Moulson (1830-1854), John’s son, sailed for Philadelphia on 1 March 1854. His steamship, City of Glasgow, left Liverpool and was never seen again. The last of the Moulson brothers died between the early 1860s and 1870. These included Thomas Moulson, Machon Bank, on 4 December 1862, aged 70; and John Moulson, Stone Grove, on 1 January 1864 (aged 69). They were buried in Ecclesall. William died on 1 November 1870, aged 72, leaving £1,500. The next generation at the Division Street business included William George (b.1829) and Joseph (1823-1866), who were the sons of Joseph and Hannah. Thomas’s sons, by his wife Jane – Robert (1822-1842) and Henry (1825-1907) – also played a role in the firm. John’s recruits to the business (by his wife, Ann) were William Henry (1825-1890), John (1828-1902), and James Alfred (1830-1854). Only William and Edwin, of the original brothers, do not seem to have had children.
The later history of the Moulson business involved mostly William Henry and John. The latter was born in Sheffield on 9 May 1828. His mother, who died in 1838, was a dedicated Wesleyan. Presumably, John’s early training was in the family firm, where his father was a partner. However, in 1849 John left for New York to become a hardware agent and settled in Brooklyn. He not only represented Moulsons at its office in Pearl Street, but also other companies. According to Goins (1998)2, Moulson Bros sold Bowie knives, besides other types of cutlery, using the mark ‘XLNT’ (a mark associated with John Wragg & Sons). During the American Civil War, John started on his own account in New York. In 1868, he was listed in a Sheffield directory as a merchant and manufacturer of table and spring knives, and edge tools, at Globe Works, Penistone Road. He followed a string of cutlers at Globe Works – Ibbotson Bros, Walters, and Unwin & Rodgers – who relied upon the US trade. He was described as an ‘American merchant’.
By 1875, Moulson Bros in Sheffield was bankrupt, with debts of over £6,000. John’s business also encountered problems. His agent in Sheffield was Henry Elliott (who also worked for Moulson Bros). In 1876, Elliott embezzled £2,000 and absconded to America (though he later returned to face trial). William Henry Moulson next formed Moulson Bros & Co with a partner, Thomas Griffiths. In 1880, Griffiths withdrew, and William Henry continued alone. He told the Census in 1881 that he employed fourteen men, three women, and two boys. However, he had ceased trading by the mid-1880s, when the Division Street premises were offered for sale (Sheffield Independent, 24 October 1885). William H. Moulson, Broomgrove Road, died on 27 February 1890, aged 64, and was buried in Ecclesall. He left £525. Also buried in Ecclesall in 1878 was W.H. Moulson’s 12-year-old son, Henry, who had died from his injuries after a fisticuffs fight conducted in the grounds of the Collegiate School (Sheffield Independent, 9 July 1878). John Moulson retired in about 1885 and stayed in New York, though he visited Sheffield each summer (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 10 February 1902). He was a wealthy man. After he died at the Grosvenor Hotel, New York, on 7 February 1902, his will was proved at £64,819. On the following day, The New York Times commented that he ‘was well known in the cutlery trade in this city. He came from Sheffield, England, in 1849, as a salesman and became later the American agent for an English cutlery house. He retired from business about fifteen years ago and had lived since that time at the Brevoort House and later at the Grosvenor.’
1. Eaton, Reg, The Ultimate Brace: A Unique Product of Victorian Sheffield (The author, 1989)
2. Goins, J E, and Goins, C, Goins’ Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings (Indianapolis, 1998)