This business advertised in a Sheffield directory (1868) as a manufacturer of razors, table cutlery, and butchers’ knives at Boston Works, Milton Street.  It was ‘successor to the late Samuel Lawton, Eyre Street’ – apparently Samuel Lawton.  Boston Works did not prosper and by 1869 the factory and its tools had been sold.  By 1870, the steam power at Boston Works was to let and eventually the workshops were occupied by William Shirley.  Identifying the John Nicholson involved is difficult.  It was probably John Nicholson (c.1837-1882), a butchers’ knife hafter, who had been born in Ecclesfield.  His first venture may have been with Thomas Brown as Nicholson, Brown & Co (listed in 1862 as a butchers’ and shoe knife manufacturer, Trafalgar Street).  In 1870, John Nicholson, Eldon Street (cutlery manufacturer, grocer, and beer seller), was bankrupt.  In 1872, he issued a humiliating public apology for slandering J. & D. Brown.  Nicholson’s later career in Eldon Street involved work as a medicine dispenser, beer house keeper (Economical Hotel), grocer, and manufacturer of razors, table and butchers’ knives.  In the Census (1881), he described himself as a butchers’ knife hafter, living with his wife Harriet.  John Nicholson, ‘manufacturer’, died at 17 Cobden View, on 11 May 1882, aged 45.  He was buried in the General Cemetery.