Directories stated that this firm was established in 1844. The founder was Edward Brown (c. 1821-1901), who by 1851 was a cast steel scissors manufacturer in Green Lane, employing 15 men and eight women. In 1858, he advertised from Henry Street. Edward’s son Edmund (born c. 1845) joined him. By 1865, Edward Brown & Son was manufacturing cast forks, scissors, and sailors’, table, and spear knives at Henry Street Works, Philadelphia. According to the Census (1871), the workforce was 29 men, three women, and three girls.  Edward lived in St Philip’s Road; Edmund in Carr Road, Walkley.

In 1883 and 1893, the firm advertised as a maker of steel and cast scissors, table, sailors’, and spear knives. By 1895, the address was Solly Street. Edward died, aged 81, in 1901 and was buried in St Philip’s churchyard on 26 February (his wife Jane had predeceased him in 1884, aged 79, and had been buried in the same cemetery).  Edmund had left Sheffield by 1901 to live in East Retford, where he worked as assistant overseer and clerk to the parish council. E. Brown & Co continued to trade in Solly Street, then Arundel Street, but ceased in about 1914.