Scraps of information from parish records suggest that Samuel Stanley may have been baptised in 1737 at Rotherham – possibly the son of John (a joiner).  After training under two cutlers – John and William Loy (possibly of William Loy & Co) – Samuel Stanley became a Freeman in 1770.  In the 1780s, he appeared in directories as a table knife cutler at Scotland Street, using the trade mark ‘S STANLEY’.  By 1797, Stanley, Lister & Kay was listed as a table knife maker at Norfolk Street (mark ‘S STANLEY’).  Besides Stanley, the partners were Francis Lister and Edward Kay.   Mary Stanley, the wife of Samuel (a cutler and factor), died on 1 April 1800 and was buried at St Paul’s.  Stanley, Lister & Kay was dissolved in 1807.  Stanley may had died in the following year.  He was missing from the Sheffield directory in 1811, though Francis Lister was still making table knives at Norfolk Street; and Edward Kay was listed as a merchant in the same street.    The latter was bankrupt in 1821.