Sketchley’s Sheffield Directory (1774) listed Richard Stead & Son as a cutler at Holycroft [Hawley Croft], near the present-day Cathedral.   The trade mark was ‘STEAD MADRID’.  Richard Sen. may have become a Freeman in 1737 (after apprenticeship to Thomas Rose in 1731).   The ‘Son’ in the business is unidentified.   He may have been Thomas: a cutler of that name, the son of Richard Stead (cutler), became a Freeman in 1768.  Richard Stead (son of Richard, a cutler), who was baptised on 5 November 1754, may be a relevant individual (though there is no indication that he trained as a cutler). 

In the Sheffield directory (1787), Richard Stead alone was listed as a pen knife maker, Silver Street (trade mark ‘STEAD’).  Clearly one of the Steads had died.  Church registers recorded the burials of Thomas Stead on 1 December 1784 (St Peter & St Paul);  Richard Stead on 15 December 1784 (St Paul’s); and Richard Stead on 20 June 1787 (St Peter & St Paul).  Their relationship is unknown, but certainly the family firm ceased business.  A newspaper advertised the late Richard Stead’s premises , Silver Street, ‘To Let’.  Smithy, tools, and household goods were also offered for sale ‘at a fair appraisement’ (Sheffield Register, 15 March 1788).