Samuel Hardy was born in about 1809.  It is not yet known when or where the business began but White’s Directory of Sheffield for 1879 and Kelly’s Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire had Samuel Hardy and Company listed at 48 Button Lane, Sheffield as a Table Knife manufacturer.

However, Samuel Hardy died on 24th November 1874 at 82 Lansdowne Road, in Sheffield having previously lived nearby in Broom Close just off London Road.  Shortly afterwards, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 17th December 1874 had an announcement of a sale of “…stock in trade, goodwill etc of the business of a cutlery manufacturer for many years carried out by the late Samuel Hardy at Button Lane …”.

The business came to be owned by Henry Hitch, born about 1838 in Staveley, Derbyshire and who was an ironmonger in Rotherham. By 1901, according to White’s Directory of Sheffield of that year, the business had moved to 112 Edward Street and was listed at that address in the White’s directories of 1911 and 1919/20.
The Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 16th December 1914 has an article describing the court proceedings for the granting of an injunction requested by Joseph Rodgers and Sons Ltd. It is against Samuel Hardy and Company of 112 Edward Street to restrain them from marking and stamping cutlery with the name of Rodgers or of offering it for sale so marked as to pass it off as being manufactured by Rodgers.

Henry Hitch died at 22 Clarkegrove Road, Sheffield on 13th February 1919 aged 80.  It is unclear if the company continued after his death.