Joseph Ludlam was a pen knife cutler, whose name appeared in Sketchley’s Sheffield Directory (1774).  He worked at Burgess Street, using the trade mark ‘AETNA’.  Details on his life are sparse.  He may have been the Joseph Ludlam (the son of Joseph and Elisabeth), who was baptised at Upper Chapel in 1729.   Apprenticeship records listed Freedoms for Joseph Ludlams in 1725 and 1755.  What is certain is that soon after 1774, Joseph died.  The next listing of Sheffield cutlers in 1781 carried only the name of his widow, Elizabeth, at Burgess Street.  In 1787, the directory entry was Widow Ludlam & Sons; by 1797, it was Elizabeth Ludlam & Sons, 17/18 Burgess Street, trade mark ‘AETNA F L T’.  In 1797, ‘Widow Ludlam’ was also listed at 70 Scotland Street as a victualler.  

Prising the Ludlam progeny from the sources is difficult and speculative, but baptismal registers listed Joseph, a cutler, with the following sons:  Joseph (bapt. 1760), John (bapt. 1766), Thomas (bapt.1772), and George (bapt. 1773).  Apprenticeship records throw up the name of another likely son, James, though his baptism has not been traced.   Joseph became a Freeman in 1785 and George in 1797 (the latter after apprenticeship to Elizabeth, knife maker).   Most of the sons started their apprenticeships fairly late: John in 1797, Thomas in 1808 to Richard Staniland, and James in 1811 to Richard Staniland.   Perhaps the sons were pressed into service to help their mother.  However, the Ludlams were not listed in the Sheffield directory (1811).  The register of the parish church (St Peter & St Paul), though, recorded the burial of Joseph Ludlam (cutler) on 11 May 1808; and Elizabeth Ludlam (widow) on 24 January 1805.