Henry Dutton and Matthew Benton were born in Birmingham:  Matthew in 1816 and Henry in about 1820.  In the Census (1841), Matthew was a silver plater;  Henry was a ‘plater apprentice’.   By 1857, they had moved to Sheffield and had formed a partnership as electro-platers and gilders in St Mary’s Place, St Mary’s Road.  In 1860, they advertised from that address, but in the following year began operating from Norfolk Lane.   Matthew lived in Manton Street; Henry in Sharrow Vale.  According to Matthew, in 1861 the firm employed five men, five women, and eight boys (a decade later the workforce was fourteen).   In 1890, the partnership was dissolved and the fittings, dies, and tools in Norfolk Lane were sold (Sheffield Independent, 11 January 1890).   Matthew Benton died in Sheffield in 1892, aged 75; Henry Dutton retired with his wife, Jane, to Shellow Bowells, Epping (his death has not been traced).  George Benton (1841-1917) and Frederick Benton (1855-1921) – who were Matthew’s sons by his wife, Maria née Hill – continued to trade from the same address in Norfolk Lane.   According to Matheau-Raven (1997)¹, they electro-plated for the trade exclusively from 1895 until about 1915.   Thomas H. Benton probably had links with this branch of the Bentons.

^1. Matheau-Raven, E R, The Identification and Dating of Sheffield Electroplated Wares 1843-1943 (London, 1997)