Charles Burgon (sometimes spelled ‘Burgin’) was born in Sheffield in 1832, the son of John Burgin and his wife Amelia.   He became a spring knife cutler, who launched Larom & Burgon, Boston Works, Charlotte Street, in about 1852.   Burgon’s partner was Frederick Larom, the son of a Baptist minister, who was later styled as an ‘American merchant’ before his death on 1 December 1871, aged 40 (his unconsecrated burial was in the General Cemetery).  Larom & Burgon was dissolved in 1852.  Burgon began trading on his own account: he lived in Crookes Road by 1861 and employed four men and two boys.  He was based in Globe Works, Penistone Road, where he continued to manufacture spring knives.  In 1865, a claim for damages (£16 5s) for the Sheffield Flood showed that he employed at least eight workers.  According to Goins (1998)¹, he made Bowie knives for the American market.

Between 1870 and 1872, Charles Burgon partnered Percy Rawson (see Rawson Bros) in Burgon & Rawson at Globe Works.  (In 1852, Burgon had married Rawson’s sister, Louisa Jane.)  This partnership ended in 1872, by which time Burgon was in partnership with James Ball, a maker of patent shears (see Ball Bros).  Burgon & Ball became a renowned sheep-shears maker, which survived into the 21st century.  Charles Burgon died of pneumonia on 23 September 1894, aged 62, at Fern Bank, Wisewood.  He was buried in Wardsend Cemetery.  He left £20,655.

^1.Goins, J  E, and Goins, C, Goins’ Encyclopedia of Cutlery Markings (Indianapolis, 1998)