George Newton was a scissors grinder at Union Wheel in Corporation Street.  He lived in Copper Street.  Both roads ran off Westbar and Gibraltar Street.  George’s son John (by his wife Mary) died, aged only one, in 1864.  George died on 24 November 1866, aged 42, leaving under £100.   He was buried at Wardsend Cemetery.   

His wife, Mary, continued the business and between the 1860s and early 1880s was listed as a maker of cast steel scissors in Copper Street.  She died on 13 May 1886 (aged 62), leaving £921, and was also buried at Wardsend.  Her sons took over the business, which was styled Mary Newton & Sons, Union Scissor Works, Furnace Hill.   The partners were listed as Edwin, George Henry, and Isaac.   The latter died in Martin Street on 4 January 1903, aged 36, leaving £2,791.  His burial was at Wardsend.  George Henry Newton (1855-1944) continued to manufacture scissors in Furnace Hill under his mother’s name, but by 1911 was running a grocery shop and beer off-licence, which by 1918 superseded the scissors business.  The trade mark was a picture of a book, with the letters ‘MNS’ intertwined.