William Singleton Searls was born in Sheffield in about 1823.  He was apparently the son of Thomas, a toolmaker, and his wife, Mary.  In 1849 – when he married Caroline, the daughter of cutlery merchant Edward Hobson – William was a bookkeeper at the office of The Sheffield Independent.  At the start of the 1850s, William established W. S. Searls & Co, a cutlery wholesaler and exporter in Worcester Street, Birmingham.  He marketed a wide range of cutlery and electro-plate and is known to have sold table knives marked ‘William S. Searls & Co’, ‘V R’ [and crown], and ‘Sheffield’ (information courtesy Simon Barley).  He had an office in Carlisle Street, Sheffield, and a retail shop at Leamington Spa.  This was closed in 1870 (Leamington Spa Courier, 8 January 1870).  Searls died on 27 December 1871, aged 48, at Granville House, Trafalgar Road, Moseley.  He left under £5,000.