George Hawksley (c.1819-1871) was born in York.  In the Census (1841), he was living in Regent Terrace, Sheffield, and working as a silversmith.  By 1849, George Hawksley & Co, silver-plate manufacturer, was listed at 32 Charlotte Street.   Hawksley’s Charlotte Street Works apparently prospered: in 1851, he told the Census that he employed 40 hands.  He had two partners – Charles Haslam and Jonathan Hukin – but this arrangement was dissolved in 1852.  George Hawksley continued alone and registered silver marks in 1856, 1858, and 1864.   He also began electro-plating.  However, the business hit financial problems and in 1864 Hawksley’s London agent, John Lumley Wragg, was arrested for embezzling £2,000.   By the mid-1860s, Edwin J. Makin became Hawksley’s successor.   George Hawksley died ‘suddenly’ at his home Thirwell Mount, Heeley, on 19 March 1871, aged 52.   He was buried in the General Cemetery.