John Townroe was born in Manchester in about 1809.   He was the son of Reuben Townroe, a manufacturer of cut nails, shoe knives, and grindery materials, who was listed in South Street in 1833.  Reuben died at his son’s residence in Market Street on 4 December 1851.  He was aged 74.  By then, John had started as a cut nail manufacturer and factor in Egerton Street.  In the 1850s, Townroe pursued several jobs: patten ring manufacturer, hardware merchant, and boot and shoe dealer.  In about 1858, he partnered William Harris, but Harris & Townroe (an electro-plate manufacturer) was dissolved in 1861.  In the following year, Townroe was declared bankrupt.  The business re-appeared by 1868 as John Townroe & Sons, a manufacturer of electro-plate goods and electro-platers and gilder to the trade.   The address was Electro Works, West Street, and Townroe employed two men and eight girls.  He died on 12 March 1874, aged 65, and was buried in an unconsecrated grave in the General Cemetery.  One of Townroe’s sons was Rueben Townroe (1835-1919), who became a noted sculptor and painter in London.  John’s widow, Mary, took over the firm.  However, at the beginning of the century it passed to Townroe’s daughters, Martha, Sarah, and Mary Ann.   They dissolved their partnership in 1904.   

Thereafter, Frank Mason and Alfred Peach Leonard (1880-1950) became partners.  Leonard had been born in Heeley, the son of a grocer and tea dealer.  By 1901, he was working as an electro-plater.   The arrangement between Mason and Leonard ended in 1925, when Leonard took over.  Townroe’s became a limited company in 1941, with £1,500 capital, and with A. P. Leonard and his son J. P. Leonard as directors.  After the death of his father, John Alfred Leonard (1907-1961), took over the company.  The latter’s death at the age of 53 was described as ‘sudden and quite unexpected’ (Quality, April 1961).  The firm was still listed in the 1970s in Rockingham Street.