John Lolewell Walters (1804-1868) was born in Sheffield on 17 June 1804, the son of William (a whitesmith) and his wife, Sarah.  Walters was an uncommon Sheffield name and little is known about John Walters’ early life (or his family).  He once stated that he had ‘risen from the ranks’, but provided no details (Sheffield Independent, 30 October 1858).  Certainly, he was not a working cutler or a Freeman; and his first business venture may not have involved cutlery.  In 1837, John Walters & Co announced to sick clubs that it had acquired the Bay Childers public house in High Street and could dine 300 people (Sheffield Independent, 15 July 1837).  In 1841, John Walter & Co advertised in a Sheffield directory as a maker of table and dessert knives and forks, and palette knives at 23 Burgess Street.  That was also the location of Unwin & Rodgers, which had been co-founded by Philip Unwin.  His sister, Eliza Unwin (1807-1855), had married John Walters in 1825.  The Burgess Street premises had a warehouse, workshops, and what was described as a ‘good dwelling house’ (Sheffield Independent, 17 December 1859).  It was a backstreet operation and would have been more merchant than manufacturer.  By 1845, Walters had moved to Carver Street Works and began selling plated eating cutlery with German silver, pearl, and ivory handles.  The trade marks were a winged horse (Pegasus), apparently dating from 1791, and the word ‘SUPERLATIVE’ (granted in 1849).  

    In 1850, Walters moved into Globe Works at Penistone Road, near Kelham Island.  This had been built for Ibbotson Bros, which had filed for bankruptcy.   Walters invested in a new steam engine and, having left the cramped Burgess Street site, had room to expand.  In 1851, Walters told the Census that he employed about 300 men.  Percy Rawson, who worked there in the early 1860s, once stated that Walters’ had ‘the largest foreign export trade … for cutlery and tools.  They employed 800 men’ (Sheffield Independent, 27 November 1889).   That last figure seems greatly exaggerated, but certainly Walters’ had emerged as one of the largest cutlers in the town.  Walters concentrated on the production of table knives (in 1851, he patented a tang for knives and forks) and spring knives.  Behind the classical façade of Globe Works was the traditional array of workshops and grinding wheels, some of which were rented to other tenants.  Walters advertised ‘To Let’ several troughs (grinding wheels) for saw and light grinders (Sheffield Independent, 10 August 1850).  Working conditions were traditional, too: hazardous and occasionally violent.  Soon after Walters occupied the factory, the three-storey grinding ‘wheel’ suffered a partial collapse that injured several workmen (Sheffield Independent, 28 September 1850).  ‘Rattenings’ by trade unions enlivened working life at Globe Works.  In 1853, a can of gunpowder blew out the windows and ceilings of the engine house (Sheffield Independent, 9 April 1850).

    The move to Globe Works coincided with the heyday of the American trade.   In directories in 1849 (Birmingham) and in 1850 (Sheffield), Walters’ advertised Bowie and dagger knives.  Cutlers’ Hall has several fine examples, which are replete with acid-etched ciphers and slogans, such as ‘Rough & Ready’ and ‘California Knife’.  One has a half-horse, half-alligator motif.   This folklore beast symbolized the ‘Hunters of Kentucky’ in an American song of the same name dating from the war of 1812.   J. Walters & Co won a Prize Medal at the Great Exhibition in 1851.  Its exhibit at the re-opened Crystal Palace in 1855 was also praised:

‘The assortment consisted of carvers, dinner, dessert, fish, fruit, pen, and pocket knives.  Their component parts were shear steel and silver steel, with handles in carved wood, ivory – plain and fancy; stag-horn and other hafts.  In dagger knives there was a beautiful assortment.  One of these, deserving of notice above its fellows, was sheathed in silver; its guard was of gold, and haft of agate stone’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 4 December 1855).

     While the company thrived, Walters suffered personal setbacks.  His son, Philip Unwin Walters (1829-1851), died of consumption at Globe Works on 1 August 1851, aged 23; followed three months later by his 15-year-old daughter, Clara Henrietta (1837-1851).  His wife, Eliza, died on 29 January 1855, aged 48.  She (and Henrietta and another son, John, who died in 1846) were buried at Carver Steet Wesleyan Chapel.  However, one of Walters’ sons, Frederick Bennett (1833-1875), was able to join the business.  In 1852, his daughter, Anne Bennett (1827-1911), married George Hirst, a wholesale druggist.  Towards the end of the 1850s, John Walters brought Hirst into the business as a partner, alongside Frank William Marriott (1836-1871).  The latter was the son of a printer and had been apprenticed to Walters.  In 1860, Hirst left and was replaced by John Kent Turner (1836-1924), who was the son of a Rotherham farmer and had been a merchant at Tillotson.   Walters evidently recognised that the firm needed new blood and more capital.  Turner came on board with a promise of £5,000 additional finance.  

    Pawson and Brailsford’s Illustrated Guide (1862) described Walters’ as ‘amongst the largest manufacturers of table knives ...  who send out goods not merely to the United Kingdom, but to America, the Continent, etc.’  The dependence on the American market, however, made the company vulnerable, when the Civil War began in April 1861.  Later that year, Walters withdrew from the partnership and the running of the company was left to F. W. Marriott, J. K. Turner, and another new partner, John Jepson, who was a departmental manager.  The nature of the firm’s American trade (and the disruptions caused by the War) were revealed when the wreck of the Modern Greece – a Confederate blockade runner, which ran aground in North Carolina in the summer of 1862 – was salvaged a century later.  The wreck contained several Bowies, pocket, and table knives stamped ‘Walters’ and ‘Globe Works’ (Bright, 1977¹).  The collapse of the American trade was exacerbated by problems at home.  ‘John K. Turner & Co’ had been registered as a mark.  Thomas Turner & Co immediately sued J. K. Turner and prevented him marking goods as ‘Turner’s’ (Sheffield Independent, 7 March 1863).   In 1864, J. Walters & Co sold its stock and entered bankruptcy proceedings, which were well publicised.  The press accounts were revealing.  The company had debts of £31,478 and assets of £12,065.   Globe Works was barely profitable – a situation exacerbated by a lack of working capital.  Turner’s £5,000 capital was described as a ‘mere myth’ (it was all borrowed money).  This had not prevented the partners from rewarding themselves handsomely.  Creditors complained that Turner had acquired a pack of hounds, four horses, and two manservants, and that his ‘extravagance had amounted to madness’ (Sheffield Independent, 25 February 1854).  Walters himself had left with a golden handshake of £1,600 a year and it was alleged that he still attended daily to business.  The creditors felt that the arrangements bordered on fraud.

    In 1865, Globe Works was occupied by Unwin & Rodgers, which acquired Walters’ name and trade marks.  Later the ‘SUPERLATIVE’ mark was acquired by S. & J. Kitchin.   John L. Walters, who had moved to Hanover Street, died on 9 January 1868, aged 63.  He died in obscurity, but he was not destitute: he left under £5,000, with Philip and John Unwin as his executors.  A monument in the unconsecrated section of the General Cemetery marks his grave, which also contains the remains of his sons, Philip and Frederick.  Frank W. Marriott next joined John Perigo and died on 22 November 1871, aged 35.  He was buried in the General Cemetery.  John Kent Turner became an iron agent and later manager.  John Jepson became a partner in Turner & Jepson.  George Hirst was, in turn, wholesale druggist and glue trader, before retiring to Southport.  He and his widow, Anne (John Walters’ daughter), were buried at Duke Street Cemetery, Southport.

^1. Bright, Leslie S, The Blockade Runner ‘Modern Greece’ and the Cargo (Raleigh, NC, 1977)