Thomas Burton, who was born in Darton, near Barnsley, in about 1794, was the son of John and Amelia Burton.  By the late 1820s, he was a cutlery manufacturer in Backfields.  In the 1830s, he worked first in Duke Street and then in Hermitage Street, where he was listed in 1837 as a pen and pocket slide knife and phleme manufacturer.   He died on 3 January 1841, aged 47, from apoplexy and was buried in the General Cemetery.  Burton’s Hermitage Street house, warehouse, shop, and country connection (alongside his striking ‘BEEHIVE’ mark) were offered for sale in The Sheffield Independent, 30 January 1841.  John Hinchliffe was the buyer.