Born in Sheffield in about 1826, Samuel Gill was based in Hollis Croft and first appeared in a directory (1852) as a maker of French and Spanish pen and pocket knives.   In 1858, however, Samuel Gill – Hollis Croft – was declared bankrupt.  His bankruptcy notice described him as a journeyman cutler and sometime cutlery dealer, who had also been in business as a draper between 1853 and 1854 in West Street.   Samuel Gill in Hollis Croft was still trading in 1861, when he employed 28 workers.  He described himself as a manufacturer of pen and Bowie knives (appearing in an 1865 directory as a specialist Bowie knife maker).   Gill exhibited his knives at the International Exhibition in London in 1862.  A correspondent noted that, ‘They range in size from an immense dagger, two yards long when open, to a miniature copy two inches long.  The haft of the large knife is made in imitation of a gun, the lock etc.  being silver, and the haft buffalo horn.  The blade is etched with pictures of Chatsworth, Wentworth, and other noblemen’s residences’ (Sheffield Independent, 19 April 1862).  

However, in 1867 Samuel Gill, 19 Carver Street was declared bankrupt and he sold his stock.  Nevertheless, he was still listed in 1868 at Crescent Works, Carver Street.  By 1871, Gill’s workforce had fallen to only six.  He left Sheffield and by 1881 was working as a bottler and cellar man in Grimsby.  He returned to Sheffield in the subsequent decade and appears to have picked up his trade again.  He died on 30 June 1899, aged 74, and was buried in Burngreave.  He had a son, Samuel, who may have been the Samuel Gill Jun. operating as a spring-knife manufacturer in Burgoyne Road in 1879.