Table knife manufacturer Joseph Smith (1782-1856) was baptised at St Mary & All Saints, Chesterfield, the son of Nathaniel, a barber.  The family moved to Sheffield and a brother, Nathaniel, was baptised there in 1784.  Joseph became a ‘caster’; his first appearance in a Sheffield directory was in 1818 as an iron founder at Trippet Lane.  By 1821, he described himself as a cast iron founder and cutler.  In 1825, he was listed at Trippet Lane as ‘late North’, a manufacturer of all kinds of table knives.  The reference was to Thomas North, a table knife manufacturer at Trippet Lane.  

In 1828, Joseph filed for insolvency (Sheffield Independent, 19 January 1828).  However, he rescued the business and by 1837 had relocated to Coalpit Lane.  In the Census (1841), he was living at Carver Street, with his wife, Mary, and brother, Nathaniel (aged 55).  Both brothers were enumerated as table knife makers.  Scissors maker James Crawshaw Ragg and his wife, Elizabeth (who was Joseph’s daughter) were living at the same address.   Joseph’s last appearance in a directory was in 1856 at Yard 44, Coalpit Lane.  Joseph Smith, Norfolk Road, table knife manufacturer, and ‘late of Coalpit Lane’, died on 10 December 1856 (Sheffield Independent, 12 December 1856).  His consecrated burial was at the General Cemetery.  The register recorded his age as 75.  The remains of his widow, Mary (who died in 1867 at Gell Street, aged 77), lie in the same grave.