Richard Kent was Master Cutler in 1741.  His background is obscure, though R. E. Leader in his history of the Company of Cutlers suggested tentatively that the family may have originated at Kimberworth (Leader, 1905-06)¹.  His residence was in Coalpit Lane.   His relationship to other Kents is unknown.  In the Sheffield directory (1774), Richard Kent & Son was listed as a table knife cutler at Hollis Croft.  The partners were apparently Richard Kent and his son, William.  The latter may have been apprenticed to his father and granted his Freedom in 1773.  The trade mark was a heart, the letter ‘G’, and a scimitar-like mark, above the words ‘NEW COIN’.  The heart-scimitar mark has been seen on early Sheffield razors.  George Kent was also listed in 1774 as a pocket knife cutler at Old Waterhouse, with a mark of a heart and ‘+ 4’.  

Leader related how Richard Kent was fined in 1783 by the Company of Cutlers for selling cast iron fork blades (when the law required that steel should be used).  Kent (who Leader does not identify) was fined 10s per blade for 102 cast metal forks (of which £41 was returned).  In 1791, Kent applied unsuccessfully to have the remainder remitted.  

By 1787, Richard Kent & Son was manufacturing table knives at Norfolk Street (mark ‘W. KENT’).   In 1791, the partnership between Richard and William Kent was dissolved (Sheffield Register, 28 January 1791).  Richard may have died in 1795: a cutler of that name was buried at St Peter & St Paul on 16 October (though another Richard Kent, ‘cutler’, was buried in the same churchyard on 2 April 1803).  William Kent, presumably Richard’s son, was listed as a table knife cutler in 1797 at Norfolk Street (using the heart-scimitar G device, and ‘KENT’).   In the same directory, John and Sarah Kent were making table knives at Brocco Street (their mark included a picture of a heart).   William Kent died on 7 December 1807.  He was described as an ‘eminent cutler … who had retired from business a few years ago’ (Leeds Mercury, 12 December 1807).  His burial was at Ecclesall. 

1. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)