Sorby: A Famous Sheffield Tool Making Family

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Sorby: A Famous Sheffield Tool Making Family
By Geoffrey Tweedale
‘SORBY’ is a well-known name in Sheffield tool and cutlery manufacture. The family was
an old one, whose members became prominent in the town’s affairs as magistrates and local
government officials. The first Master Cutler (the head of the local craft guild) in 1624 was
Robert Soresby (the name has had various spellings). Other Sorbys later held that post.
By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, several Sorby tool and cutlery
businesses thrived in Sheffield. Their history is featured in tool reference books, on internet
sites, and in company literature. Much has been made of the family’s ancient links to the first
Master Cutler, its worthy municipal record, its illustrious descendants (one of them was the
scientist, Henry Clifton Sorby), and the longevity of its industrial activities. Unfortunately,
that reported history is incomplete. Moreover, the complex family and inter-firm linkages
have bred endless confusion. Sorby’s business history therefore merits further investigation.
Sorby, Hobson & Sorby
The tool-making Sorbys originated in Attercliffe – a village in the River Don valley, which
was within two miles of Sheffield town centre. A view of Sheffield from Attercliffe appeared
in Joseph Hunter’s Hallamshire (an antiquarian tome published in 1819). Attercliffe’s rural
character is evident, but the distant chimneys and smoke are harbingers of an industrial tidal
wave that would soon swamp this area beneath some of the biggest steel works in the world.
Even when Hunter wrote, Attercliffe was known for iron forging and scissors manufacture.
Other trades prospered, too.
View of Sheffield and the River Don from Attercliffe, 1819
John Sorsby (1712-1795) was a linen weaver or draper, who had married Hannah
Corker. They had three sons: Thomas (1752-1801), a schoolmaster and later factor; John
(1755-1829), an edge tool maker; and Samuel (1758-1815), a weaver and parish clerk.
In one antiquarian pedigree (Hunter), Thomas is described cryptically as ‘deformed’.
However, by 1790 he had entered the tool trade as a partner in SORBY, HOBSON &
SORBY. This firm traded as a factor in the adjacent district of the Wicker. It was listed in a
directory in 1797. The other ‘Sorby’ was probably Thomas’s brother John (later owner of
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JOHN SORBY & SONS). Jonathan and George Hobson were also partners. John Sorby
withdrew in 1799. Thomas died on 9 May 1801, aged 49, and was buried in Attercliffe. Until
1810, Jonathan Hobson continued to trade on behalf of Thomas’s executors (which included
himself, another Jonathan Hobson – presumably his son – John Sorby, and Joseph Turner).
Thomas’s descendants included a daughter, Ann (1784-1868), who in 1803 married William
Lockwood (whose family also operated an edge tool firm).
John Sorby & Sons
John Sorby (1755-1829) did most to establish the Sorby name. The family Bible – now
lodged at Sheffield Local Studies Library – gives precise details of his entrance into the
world. He was born at Attercliffe on 14 December 1755 ‘about eight o’clock at night’, the son
of John and Hannah Sorby.
Sorby family Bible, Orgreave Hall
(Sheffield Local Studies Library)
Trade catalogues stated that John Sorby & Sons was founded in 1780. Other sources
suggest John started business soon after his marriage. Originally, he had worked for John
Swallow, who owned Attercliffe Forge. In 1784, he married the boss’s daughter, Elizabeth
(1761-1829), at Sheffield Parish Church. They had a dozen children and most of them lived
into adulthood.
John began manufacturing edge tools, specialising in sheep shears. In 1791,
when he purchased his Freedom from the Company of Cutlers, he took as his
mark a hanging sheep (a sign he later hung over the entrance to his factory). His
first works address in directories was in the Wicker. He also apparently partnered his brother, Thomas, in SORBY, HOBSON & SORBY. But by 1810
(probably sooner), his business and residential address was Spital Hill, overlooking the Wicker and the town’s burgeoning steel works. He was installed as Master Cutler in 1806 (the
first such appointment in the family since 1669). Tradition has it that he was the first Master
Cutler to be driven to its Feast in his own private carriage.
In about 1816, the business became JOHN
SORBY & SONS, with the addition of John Sorby
(1786-1861) and Henry Sorby (1790-1846). In
1808, John Jun. registered a thistle trade mark. He
also registered patents for his improvements in
sheep shears (1810) and woodworking augurs for
shipwrights (1816). One of John’s patent shears is depicted in Joseph Smith’s, Explanation or
Key to the Various Manufactories of Sheffield (1816).
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John Sorby Sen. became a wealthy man. He lived at Orgreave Hall, near Rotherham. Besides edge tool manufacture, the family had developed interests in coal
mining. Edwin (1792-1864), another son, was one of the operators of the Sheffield
Coal Co. In the late 1820s, John Sen. appears to have stepped down completely in
favour of his sons. In 1827, John Jun. and Henry were granted their own mark, ‘I.
& H. SORBY’. Their father died at Orgreave on 30 July 1829, aged 73 (his wife, Elizabeth,
had died on 4 February, aged 68). They were buried in Attercliffe churchyard.
John and Henry were joined by another brother, Alfred (1800-1866). Henry retired in
1832, leaving John and Alfred in charge. By the early 1840s, the Sorbys (Alfred, John Jun.,
and the latter’s son, John Francis) were partners in the tool and cutlery firm of LOCKWOOD
BROTHERS. That link had been fostered by the marriage of Thomas’s daughter, Ann, to
William Lockwood. The Sorby involvement proved brief, as each brother had made enough
money for a comfortable retirement.
Henry’s share of the business enabled
his son, Henry Clifton Sorby (18261908), to enjoy the life of a gentleman
scientist, whose path breaking work in
metallography made the Sorbys even
more widely known.
In 1844, Lockwood Bros acquired John
Sorby & Sons. Thereafter, Lockwood’s
(while still operating its Arundel Street
factory in the town centre) owned Spital Hill Works and the Sorby marks.
These marks have been found on trade
knives or dags (short, flat daggers) exported to the American frontiersman and Native
American for chopping, scalping, and stabbing.
When this trade waned after the 1850s, Colonial
markets became paramount. One Sorby catalogue
was titled, ‘Colonists’ Guide to the Selection of
Implements’. It showed a wide range of woodworking tools, such as braces and spoke shaves.
In the late nineteenth century, the Spital
Hill Works became one of the largest edge tool factories in Sheffield. Lockwood’s used John Sorby &
Sons as a stand-alone name. Such was the reputation of ‘I. & H. Sorby’ that Lockwood Bros gave it
as much prominence as its own trade mark. In one
Sheffield directory (1868), Sorby marks had a fullpage advertisement with multi-lingual text. In 1877,
Lockwood’s re-registered ‘I. & H. Sorby’. The Illustrated Guide to Sheffield & Surrounding District
(edited by John Taylor and published in 1879) also
gave John Sorby & Sons and Lockwood’s equal
billing. It noted: ‘These two firms have long represented one and the same firm, and the two factories,
though in distant parts of the town, are in immediate communication by telephone’.
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Bending and finishing shears
The Illustrated Guide provided a detailed account of the making of ‘Sorby’
sheep shears – forged and assembled by
hand – which were in great demand in
Australia and New Zealand. In 1887,
John Sorby & Sons won an award at the
Adelaide Exhibition.
These were peak years for ‘I. & H. Sorby’. But in 1891, Lockwood’s vacated
its Arundel Street premises and centred
its operations in Spital Hill. The Sorby
name and mark became less prominent, though the hanging sheep was still shown in directories alongside other Lockwood marks. By the First World War, Lockwood’s (and Sorby’s)
reputation was fading, as international competition and mechanisation eroded Sheffield’s
dominance of the tool trade . The parent company was sold in 1927. Five years later, ‘I. & H.
SORBY’ was sold to Turner, Naylor & Co – the owners of ‘I. SORBY’. Spital Hill Works is
now derelict.
Sorby & Turner/Turner, Naylor & Co Ltd (‘I. Sorby’)
Advertisements stated that ‘I. SORBY’ was established in 1810. However, the
original firm was SORBY, TURNER & SKIDMORE and did not appear in directories until 1816. The partners were John Sorby (1780-1829), John Turner
(bapt. 1778-1857), and Henry Skidmore (c.1766-1822). Their firm was located
in the Wicker. In one directory, the address was Goodcroft, Willey Street, which
places the firm on the banks of the River Don. It made edge tools, cutlasses, and
plantation tools, such as machetes. After Skidmore died in 1822, aged 56, the enterprise became SORBY & TURNER.
John Sorby had been born on 28 February 1780, the son of Samuel (1758-1815) of
Attercliffe. The family was linked with SORBY, HOBSON & SORBY. John was thus the
nephew of John Sorby of JOHN SORBY & SONS (with its ‘I. & H. SORBY’ mark). The
Turners came from Eckington – a Derbyshire hamlet about eight miles from Sheffield –
where John was apparently baptised in 1778. The brief reference – in the Company of Cut-
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lers’ records – to the apprenticeship in 1792 of John Turner, ‘poor boy, Eckington’, to John
Mullins in Eckington, is intriguing.
John Sorby died on 4 December 1829, aged 49, and was buried in Attercliffe churchyard. The Sheffield Independent, 22 May 1830, announced the auction of a large stock of his
edge tools, materials, and working tools. In the 1830s and early 1840s, John Turner continued
to be listed in directories as an edge tool manufacturer in the Wicker. Later he moved to Button Lane, where his wife, Jane, died on 26 October 1847, aged 63. In January 1851, John announced that he was handing the business to his son, Charles Turner (1813-1885), and his
son-in-law, William Wheelhouse (Sheffield Independent, 25 January 1851). John died on 21
March 1857, aged 79, and was buried in the General Cemetery.
Turner & Wheelhouse traded as an edge tool manufacturer in Earl Street. In 1852, it
was dissolved and later Wheelhouse announced that he was disposing of his rights in the
business and the ‘old-established mark, I. SORBY’ to Charles and Joseph Turner (Sheffield
Independent, 18 February 1854). Joseph (1810-1895) had been born in Eckington and was
apparently John Turner’s son (or possibly his nephew). In about 1833, Joseph may have partnered edge-tool maker William Oakes: if so, that arrangement only lasted until 1834.
Charles and Joseph advertised in the
Sheffield directory (1856) as ‘late
Sorby & Turner’, light and heavy
edge tool manufacturers, with the
mark ‘I. SORBY’. The ‘I’ stands for ‘John’, not
‘Isaac’, as has commonly been supposed. Continuing to trade off the Sorby name was logical
for the Turners, especially since the ‘I. & H.
SORBY’ mark of Lockwood Bros still had considerable cachet in home and export markets.
In 1858, Charles left the business. Joseph established JOSEPH TURNER & CO at
Perseverance Works, Castle Hill. In 1859, he registered the ‘PUNCH’ mark. He was joined
by Thomas Goodwin and Joseph Naylor (1833-1928). The latter had been apprenticed as an
edge tool maker. He was the son of William, a steel roller,
who died in 1843, aged 38. According to an inquest reported
in The Sheffield Independent, 9 December 1843, William died
after suffering a fractured skull in a drunken quarrel. His alleged assailant was acquitted of manslaughter.
When Goodwin left in 1868, the firm became TURNER,
NAYLOR & CO. In 1871, it occupied Northern Tool Works,
John Street. This was in Little Sheffield, a district not far from
the town centre, where cutlery and light engineering firms
congregated. Charles Marples (1848-1901), from the wellknown toolmakers William Marples & Sons, joined the firm.
In 1876, it was styled TURNER, NAYLOR & MARPLES. In
that year, the firm re-registered ‘PUNCH’ and ‘I. SORBY’,
claiming that they had been used since 1810.
According to the Census, by the 1870s over seventy men were employed, besides a
dozen or so females. In 1879, Joseph Turner retired; in 1893, Marples withdrew. The firm
again became TURNER, NAYLOR & CO. Its tools proved especially popular in Colonial
markets, such as Australia. How many were produced at Northern Tool Works is unknown.
Certainly some would have been made elsewhere in Sheffield and ‘bought in’ (say from
Marples), or ordered from the tool makers to whom Turner, Naylor rented space in its factory.
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An illustrated account of that factory
appeared in a vanity publication, Sheffield and
Rotherham Up-to-Date (1897). Even allowing
for the customary exaggeration, Northern Tool
Works – fronting John Street and Hill Street –
was one of the larger tool factories in the city.
Reportedly, it had four forges, smiths’ shops
fitted with hearths, two steam engines, a large
boiler, and a 12-hole crucible furnace. The factory had the usual mix of trades and outworkers
– and the usual risks. On 13 October 1875, William Fletcher, aged 20, was crushed to death
beneath a heavy hoist weight, after the rope had broken. John Thompson, a 22-year-old
grinder, was killed on 5 April 1889, when a shattered grindstone hurled him against a wall.
In 1897, TURNER, NAYLOR & CO LTD was registered with
£30,000 capital. Joseph Naylor and his three sons were the
chief subscribers and directors. However, Joseph soon retired
and his sons left (one became a pub landlord; another a surgeon; and one moved to London). In 1909, the firm was acquired by William Marples & Sons. The business was experiencing difficulties. In 1912, a loss of over £10,000 was recorded and Marples reduced Turner, Naylor’s capital to £20,000.
The company traded as a
subsidiary
of
William
Marples & Sons into the
interwar period. Little is
known of its management
during these difficult years,
but its trade catalogues still
displayed a huge range of
Sorby tools – everything from woodworking tools to cutlery, and gardening tools to corkscrews.
In 1932, Marples acquired the ‘I. & H. SORBY’
mark, too. After the Second World War, Mr Punch with
his bag of tools marched again across Turner, Naylor advertisements in journals, such as The Ironmonger. The
firm traded under William Marples & Sons until 1963,
when it was finally dissolved. The factory was demolished and modern industrial buildings now cover the site.
Robert Sorby & Sons Ltd
Robert Sorby (1787-1857) was the son of Thomas Sorby of Attercliffe, who was a partner in SORBY, HOBSON & SORBY. Robert apparently started his business in about 1812. He was listed in
a directory (1828) as a merchant and manufacturer of edge tools in
Union Street. His residence was Park Grange. At the end of 1834, he vacated the Union
Street premises and moved to Carver Street. By 1837, he was listed as a manufacturer of
saws, patent scythes and hay knives, and a steel refiner. In the 1840s, the business became,
in turn, ‘& SON’ and ‘& SONS’, after Robert Jun. (1816-1865) and Thomas Austin Sorby
(1823-1885) had joined their father.
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Sorby’s edge tools found a ready market. The firm seized the chance to publicise its
products at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, where it won a Prize Medal. At that
time, Sorby’s employed a hundred men, which placed it among the town’s leading edge tool
manufacturers. Robert Sen., who suffered from asthma, died – about two months after his
wife, Sarah – at Park Grange on 7 November 1857,
aged 70. Robert Jun., too, was in poor health and died
at Herringthorpe, near Rotherham, on 13 June 1865,
aged 50, The press reported that the number of workmen attending his funeral at Whiston Church numbered
over 250. He left a considerable estate of £25,000.
Thomas Austin remained as partner. He had been
joined by his nephew Robert Henry Sorby (1843-1885),
who was the son of Robert Jun.
As a merchant, the business would have
sourced goods from other makers in the town, but it
certainly had manufacturing capacity. It converted and
melted its own steel for saws, scythes, and other tools.
Sorby’s saw grinders were based outside Sheffield at
Roscoe Wheel, Stannington. These grinders were ‘rattened’ in the 1860s, when trade unions removed their
grinding-wheel bands as a reprisal for non-payment of
union dues. This sabotage was aimed at individual
grinders, rather than the company itself. Generally,
Sorby’s had a good reputation as employers. In 1864,
during an evening of toastings and ‘conviviality’ at the Pack Horse Inn in Snig Hill, the
workers presented Robert Jun. and Thomas with gold and enamel timepieces as a testimonial
of respect (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 28 June 1864).
Trade was good. By 1881, Sorby’s employed (according to the Census) 108 men,
fourteen women, and eighteen boys. The partners – particularly Thomas – had developed export markets in America and the Colonies, especially
India and Australia. Revealingly, its trade mark was
a ‘KANGAROO’ (reputable enough by 1864 for the
company to warn against its fraudulent use). The
Sheffield Independent, 13 September 1883, noted the
dispatch of a consignment of Sorby’s products for
the Calcutta Exhibition. It included cases of edge
tools and augurs; specimens of crucible cast steel;
and saws (including a 6-ft circular). The exhibit won
a Gold Medal.
Thomas had become a well-known local figure as a
magistrate, Town Trustee, and Church Burgess.
However, his partnership with Robert Henry ended
in 1885. Within days of the dissolution, Robert set
sail for America, intending to become an orange
grower in Florida. He died on 30 July 1885 from
sunstroke a day out of Queenstown and was buried at
sea. The news of his death was received in Sheffield
on the day when Thomas himself was buried at Ecclesall churchyard: he had died from heart disease on 12 August 1885, aged 62. He left
£14,286. Thomas’s sons – Robert Arthur (1854-1907) and Thomas Heathcote Sorby (18561930) – inherited the Carver Street enterprise. In his youth, Thomas Heathcote was an amateur footballer and in 1879 once played for England.
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In 1893, the firm became a private limited company, ROBERT SORBY & SONS
LTD, with £20,000 capital. In 1896, Sorby’s sold the premises in Carver and Rockingham
Street. The next address was in Trafalgar Street. In 1901, Sorby’s merged with JOHN
WILSON, MARSDEN BROTHERS & CO, Portland Works, West Street. This business was
the rump of Marsden Bros, another edge tool and skate manufacturer, which had been acquired by two brothers: Henry James (1862-1943) and Rowland Haynes (1872-?). They
were the sons of James Haynes, who had been the wealthy co-owner of Stones Brewery, and
who had died in 1899. Rowland left the tool business in 1901 and in the following year a
street-widening scheme led to the demolition of Portland Works. Henry James joined Robert
Sorby & Sons. The Marsden/Wilson marks – ‘OMEGA’, ‘ODEN’, and a greyhound – were
retained under the better-known Sorby name. By now Robert Arthur had retired; and in about
1905 Thomas did likewise. He was the last Sorby partner.
Sorby’s continued under H.J. Haynes. Besides Wilson and Marsden Bros, the
H. Burgon Patent Shear Co was listed as part of Sorby’s by 1907. After edge tool maker James Howarth & Sons was liquidated in 1912, Haynes acquired the assets and
mark (‘JH’). In 1922, however, Sorby’s itself was bankrupt. The Sorby and Howarth
assets were bought by the engineers Hattersley & Davidson Ltd.
ROBERT SORBY & SONS (1923) LTD was formed, with £25,000
capital. It was based at Kangaroo Works, Trafalgar Street (stretching around the corner into Wellington Street, where the address at
the entrance was No. 44). Howarth was listed at Broomspring
Works, Trafalgar Street (the same factory).
In 1934, Sorby’s relocated to Chesterfield Road. After the War, the
firm continued to advertise a wide range of edge, joiners’, and gardening tools (some of which were sourced). However, in 1985 a
new works was built at Athol Road, Sheffield, and as ROBERT
SORBY the firm shed its other interests and focused on wood chisels and turning tools. Sorby’s followed the path of other illustrious
Sheffield names and was swallowed by larger manufacturing groups. But it continues as an
autonomous division marketing Sorby woodworking tools within a few miles of its old factory in Sheffield. When that factory was demolished in 2009, the stone Kangaroo above the entrance was rescued and transferred to Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield.
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Sources
The best place to see old Sorby tools is Kelham Island Museum, which displays
the superb cased ‘I. Sorby’ tools in the photograph. That museum also houses
the Hawley Collection, which has many Sorby artefacts and even the stone Kangaroo façade from Robert Sorby & Sons. I am grateful to the late Ken Hawley
for facilitating access to some of these materials. I have also been helped greatly
by Sheffield Local Studies Library in drawing upon contemporary books, newspapers, trade catalogues, and genealogical sources. The published literature includes an illustrated catalogue produced by the Ruskin Gallery, The Cutting
Edge: An Exhibition of Sheffield Tools (Sheffield, 1993). Peter Gill filled in
some Sorby gaps in ‘About Robert Sorby’, Tools & Trades History Society
Newsletter 61 (Summer 1998). The Sorbys usually merit a place in the standard
reference books on tools: for example, Reg Eaton, The Ultimate Brace: A
Unique Product of Victorian Britain (1989); W.L. Goodman, British Planemakers from 1700 (3rd edition, revised by Jane & Mark Rees, 1993); and Simon Barley, British Saws and Saw Makers from c.1660 (2014).
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Author’s Note
This Sorby history was written for:
http://www.wkfinetools.com/
It draws on Tweedale’s Directory of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers 1740-2013. Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition (2014), pp.
740. Besides Sorby profiles, this volume contains histories of
over 1,600 cutlery manufacturers. It is available from:
http://www.lulu.com
http://www.knifeworld.com
© G. Tweedale 9 November 2014