William Birks & Son
William Birks was a yeoman, who lived at Doe Royd, near Ecclesfield. Four of his sons were apprenticed as cutlers. One of them Jonathan, was trained under William Smith and became a Freeman (F) in 1694. His trade mark was a ‘Tobacco Pipe’. He was Master Cutler in 1714. The pipe mark passed to his son, John (F 1726), who died in 1747; and later to William Birks, who was Master Cutler in 1766. (William may have been the son of Henry Birks, who was a razor maker.) The reputa....
