John Shirtcliffe (bapt.  2 January 1801-1877) was apparently the son of John Shirtliff (sic) and Hannah.  His early career was spent partly as a publican at the Tuscan Tavern, St Thomas Street, where his activities included hosting inquest proceedings and running funding societies.   In 1840, he was trading as a pearl scale cutter in Portobello and acquired the business of Benjamin Wild (Sheffield Independent, 18 July 1840).   In June 1840, he was in partnership with William Thomas Mabbott, but this soon ended.  Eventually, he relinquished his work as a publican and by 1852 had established a scale-cutting business at 104 West Street.  

Shirtcliffe apparently operated a profitable business – he employed a dozen men and two boys in 1871, when he lived in Edgegate Villa, Osborne Road, Brincliffe.   However, he was fined repeatedly for smoke pollution (Sheffield Independent, 11 October 1856, 19 September 1857) and for using inaccurate weights (Sheffield Independent, 2 July 1864).  When an official visited the West Street premises to report on child labour, he found that the workshops were rented to over 200 people, which ‘may account in some degree for its bad and neglected condition’ (White, 1865¹).   The official met Shirtcliffe’s son, Robert, who stated that he placed boards over machinery, if he thought there was any danger.  The official thought ‘his judgement on this point must be rather loose’.

John Shirtcliffe died on 15 June 1877, aged 76, and was buried in the General Cemetery (in an unconsecrated grave).  He left under £2,000.  He had married twice.  His second wife was Jane Fowler, who in 1861 was living with him at Edgegate Villa (she was a widow and a ‘keeper of lodgers’).  Shirtcliffe’s first wife, Mary, had died in 1860, aged 61.   Their sons, John (1822-1875) and Robert Charles (1836-1886), became pearl and ivory cutters and achieved minor notoriety.  In 1857, John was sentenced to a year’s hard labour for receiving stolen pearl shells (Sheffield Independent, 17 January 1857).  He featured next in the local press after drinking sprees and disputes over money (Sheffield Independent, 16 June 1863, 27 August 1864).  His son, John Jun., partnered Robert Owen but was bankrupt in 1877.  He committed forgery, fled to Germany, and was later jailed (Sheffield Independent, 23 March 1877).   His father died on 9 January 1875, aged 52, and was buried in the General Cemetery.   

Robert Charles Shirtcliffe joined his father’s West Street business, which by 1879 was Shirtcliffe & Son.   Robert also made the pages of the local newspaper, after a well-publicised altercation with tramways conductors (possibly caused by imbibing in the local hostelries) led to a fine (Sheffield Independent, 30 October 1882).   Robert C. Shirtcliffe, Grange Crescent, died on 9 October 1886, aged 50.  He was buried in Ecclesall, leaving £3,494 to his widow, Sarah Ann (d. 1899).  His son, Frederick William Shirtcliffe (1858-1916), continued the pearl business.  He was succeeded by his son, Frederick Horace (1879-1941).  In 1921, the firm became a private limited company (capital £6,000) and traded at West Street until it was liquidated in 1954.

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