Joshua Gray (1822-1888) was born at Tingle Bridge, near Hemingfield, Yorkshire, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth.  By 1851, Joshua was living with his wife, Sarah, at Leicester Street in Sheffield.  His occupation was spring-knife blade forger; his wife made bonnets.  The family moved to Beet Street and then to 102 Clarence Street, where by 1881 Joshua was a pruning knife maker, though he did not appear in local directories.  He died on 2 February 1888, aged 65, and was buried at the General Cemetery in a grave which later received the remains of his wife, Sarah (who died in 1889, aged 67).

Their sons – Thomas Wainwright Gray (1848-1929) and Frederick Gray (1852-1892) – trained as knife blade forgers.  They formed T. W. & F. Gray, pruning knife manufacturers, which was listed in the local directory at Clarence Street.  However, Frederick suffered from ‘nervous debility’.  On 15 February 1892, at his home at Weston Street – where he lived with his sister – he slashed his throat with a razor, despite an attempt by his brother to intervene.  The inquest verdict was ‘temporary insanity’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 17 February 1892).  He was buried in the General Cemetery, leaving £1,005.

Thomas W. Gray continued to trade as a pruning knife manufacturer, after restyling the business as Joshua Gray & Sons.  After the First World War, he retired.  He died at his home Riverdale, Holymoorside, Chesterfield, on 25 January 1929.  He left £1,250.  Thomas apparently had no sons and must have sold the business (or at least the name and goodwill).  It had been registered in 1923 as a private limited company, with £500.   The subscribers were Edward Percy Annely, an accountant at Shiregreen; and Sydney W. Johnson, a clerk, who lived at Dorothy Road, Hillsborough.  The firm was based at a single-story factory at Darnall Road to manufacture cutlery, knives, agricultural tools and implements.  It continued to trade at that address into the 1950s, when its output was edge tools and shears.  But it was wound up in 1965.