Strying was not a common name in Sheffield.  For example, no Styrings appeared in Robinson’s Directory of Sheffield (1797).  However, the apprenticeship rolls of the Company of Cutlers recorded a Charles Styring purchasing his Freedom as a knife maker in 1797; and Charles, the son of Charles (a knife maker), becoming a Freeman in 1807 (Leader, 1905-06)¹.  Apparently, Charles Sen. (c.1753-1831) was a soap boiler when his son, Charles – by his wife, Mary – was baptised in Sheffield in 1785.  By about 1800, father and son were working as cutlers and factors.  In 1807, Charles Jun. married Hannah née Longden (1786-1834), and they had a son, Charles, who was born in 1812.

In 1811, Charles Styring & Son was listed as factors, and pen, pocket, and table knife manufacturers at Broad Lane.  However, in November 1810 the partnership ended.  Charles Jun. agreed to continue the business alone.  In 1816, Charles Styring (presumably Jun.) was listed as a pen, pocket, and table knife manufacturer at Rockingham Street.  He also traded in spades and shovels.  Curiously, a scissors partnership between Charles Styring and Thomas Barlow was dissolved in 1820, but no further details are available (though the latter may have been connected with J. & T. Barlow).

Charles Styring Jun. continued in business at Rockingham Street into the early 1820s, with his father living at the same address.  However, in 1824 the enterprise was bankrupt.  The subsequent auction offered four lots: (i) a freehold dwelling house, fronting to Gell Street, ‘fit for the reception of a genteel family’; (ii) a freehold dwelling house, fronting to Rockingham Street, currently occupied by Charles Styring Sen., with warehouse, workshops, stable and yard adjoining the house occupied by Charles Jun., ‘wherein the trade of a spade and shovel manufacturer hath been carried on to a considerable extent’; (iii) a leasehold dwelling house in Rockingham Street, with workshops, gig house, and yard, with Edward Barber as tenant; (iv) a plot of leasehold ground fronting to Gell Street, used as a garden (Sheffield Independent, 4 December 1824).

The Styrings disappeared from directories.  Charles Styring Sen. died on 19 June 1831, aged 78.   He was described as a merchant in his press obituary; and a bookkeeper in the burial register of St Peter & St Paul.  Charles Jun. was widowed in 1834, when his wife, Hannah, died.  A headstone with her name and other members of the Longden family (including her father, Henry) was erected at Carver Street Chapel.  In the Census (1851), Charles Jun. was enumerated at an address in Porter Street as a lodger and ‘proprietor of houses’.  Meanwhile, his son, had married and was working as a stove grate fitter.  Charles Styring Jun. died at Sheffield Hospital on 19 October 1859, aged 75, and was buried at St John’s, Park.  

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