John McClory (1821-1867) was born into an Irish Catholic family in County Down.  He worked with fellow-Irishman, Thomas McGivern, until about 1861, when he opened his own cutlery ‘warehouse’ in Waingate (advertised in Pawson & Brailsford’s Illustrated Guide, 1862).  John McClory died after ‘a short but severe illness’ on 7 November 1867, leaving under £2,000.  By the early 1880s, his sons, John (1853-1913) and William Vincent (1854-1913?), were trading as John McClory & Sons, Eldon Works, Eldon Street,  table and pocket cutlery manufacturers and general merchants.  According to a vanity publication:

A few years ago, partly owing to the apathy of the older firms … the enormous trade in cheap and middle-class goods seemed likely to fall into the hands of our German rivals.  Messrs’ McClory & Sons, rightly thinking that if an article as cheap and attractive as the German one, while combining the substantial merit of Sheffield-made goods, could be placed on the market, an enormous trade must result, [they] turned their attention to the manufacture of low-priced cutlery on a gigantic scale … (Industries of Sheffield, 1888).

Ironically, McClory’s sold German cutlery and tools and were not above ‘inadvertently’ counterfeiting Sheffield marks (Sheffield Independent, 14 September 1878; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 10 January 1889).  In about 1892, McClory’s moved to Continental Works, fronting Milton, Headford, and Warner Streets.  In 1898, it became ‘Ltd’, as a manufacturer and merchant of cutlery and electro-plate, with £60,000 nominal capital (£45,000 issued).  John and William were joined by Thomas Wilson, whose business (housed at Continental Works) became part of the new company.  Wilson soon withdrew; William McClory moved to London; and John later retired.  William apparently died in 1913 – the same year as John, who died on 1 June 1913, aged 60.  He was buried at St Michael’s Roman Catholic cemetery (his wife, Mary Ann, died in 1922).  He left £4,024. 

John’s son, John Lewis McClory (1881-1935), became chairman.  He was assisted before the War by Henry Elliott; and after 1915 by George Henry Street (1873-1929).  J. L. McClory had been sent as a teenager to study German machine methods; and Street was an advocate of mass production.  Consequently, in the 1920s McClory’s was one of the first to market stainless table cutlery and mechanise blade grinding.  J. L. McClory died at his home, The Gables, Hathersage, on 10 February 1935, aged 53, leaving £1,790.  Dedicated to his business, his obituary was headlined ‘Man Employees Worshipped’ (Sheffield Daily Independent, 11 February 1935).  McClory’s was liquidated in 1938.  The name and mark (‘SCOTIA’ and a thistle) re-appeared, first at Radford Street and then Herries Road (owner Hiram Wild).