James Bingham (bapt. 24 April 1803) was apparently the son of Samuel (a razor smith) and his wife, Elizabeth.  James was a razor manufacturer by the late 1820s, when he briefly partnered Jonathan Crookes.  During the 1830s and 1840s, his works address was New Church Street.  In 1841, he was living in Crooks Cottage, Broom Hill, with his wife, Euphemia, and two sons.  He used the trade mark ‘CONGRUENT on his hollow-ground razors.  By 1845, however, he had withdrawn from business.  His later career was as the manager of the razor grinders at George Wostenholm & Son.   He was interviewed by a government commission on child labour, when he stated that when he was ‘first in the trade the average age of razor grinders at death was 34’.   He said that exhaust fans had improved matters, so that ‘we have some men of good age.  The effect of the work depends very much on the temperance of the workers’ (White, 1865¹).  James Bingham himself died, aged 73, in Broomspring Lane on 29 November 1876.  He was buried in the General Cemetery and left under £600.  His ‘CONGRUENT’ mark was later used by Wostenholm.

^1. White, J E, Fourth Report of the Children’s Employment Commission (London, 1865)