Michael Fagan was Irish.   He was born in about 1814, the son of Richard.  In 1839, at Doncaster he married Mary, the daughter of Mr Dimaline, a Doncaster bookseller.  In the Census (1841), Michael and Mary were living in Sheffield.  Michael was a 27-year-old ironmonger, who operated a Birmingham and Sheffield warehouse in Fargate.  By 1845, the address was Waingate.  In 1849, Fagan described himself as a dealer and cutlery manufacturer (though he was actually a factor).  In 1848, he was charged with assault, after throwing bricks at a woman from his yard (who had allegedly tipped water over him).  After insulting the Mayor, who was judging the case, Fagan was fined (Sheffield Independent, 8 April 1848).  Later that year, he was charged again with assault, after an altercation with a former friend over gambling debts (Sheffield Independent, 24 June 1848).   The charge was dismissed.  

In the directory (1852), Fagan had a full-page advertisement for Sheffield Comb Works, Workhouse Croft, which was also a wholesale cutlery warehouse and dealer in horn.  Fagan was listed in 1854 in North Street and Paradise Street, but apparently died in that year, possibly in Glasgow (where a Michael Fagan was buried at Eighthill Cemetery).  In September, his widow offered to dispose of the Paradise Street business, which included two patents for the Baltic razor and linen stretcher (Sheffield Independent, 3 September 1854).