This branch of the family has been traced to Luke Cadman (1695-1744), Oxclose Farm, Eckington, who married Sarah Belk.  At least three of their younger sons established cutlery ‘Works’ in Sheffield.  Luke Cadman (1727-1788), their second son, moved to Sheffield in 1740 and was apprenticed into the trade, becoming a Freeman of the  Company of Cutlers in 1748.  He was granted the mark ‘BENGALL’ (later the firm also used a picture of a running hare above the word ‘VIVID’).   Luke Cadman married Nancy Matthews in 1753 and had several children, two of whom – Luke Jun. (1754-1816) and Peter (1764-1817) – joined the family business.   In the late eigheenth- and early nineteenth-century, when the ‘BENGALL’ mark established an international reputation, the business was located, in turn, at various addresses in the town centre:  Fargate, Surrey Street, and Carver Street.   The London Gazette reported several changes of partnership, which may have involved this branch of the Cadman family.  In 1793, a partnership between George Cadman (cutler) and Peter Cadman (razor maker) was terminated.  In 1801, Cadman & Skidmore, a scissors maker, was dissolved.  The partners were Joseph Skidmore, John Booth, and Peter Cadman.  The latter continued to trade as Peter Cadman & Co, scissorsmiths, with John Booth and Benjamin Mellar.  This ended in 1810.  In the following year, Peter Cadman was listed as a razor and scissors manufacturer, Fargate.

Peter Cadman had married Hannah Staniland in 1793.  After Peter’s death in 1817 (and burial at the parish churchyard on 19 November), Hannah was listed in the 1820s as ‘manufacturer’ of Bengal razors from Cadman’s Yard, Fargate.   In 1821, she defended successfully the family’s trade mark, when another manufacturer, Hammond & White, began using the word ‘BENGOL’ (Bracey, 2016¹).   The terms of the settlement with Hammond & White are unknown, but the Company of Cutlers paid Hannah’s costs of £12 15s 6d (Leader, 1905-06²).   In 1823, Hannah forced razor maker George Savage to make a grovelling apology in the local press for in-fringing ‘BENGALL’ (Sheffield Independent, 8 March 1823).

Hannah Cadman, ‘razor manufacturer’, died ‘suddenly’ on 9 April 1828, aged 55.  She was buried in St Peter & St Paul churchyard.   The business passed to Alfred (Peter’s and Hannah’s second son, who had been born in Sheffield in 1802).   He moved to Monmouth Street, but he died there on 5 October 1841 from ‘brain fever’.  He was buried in the General Cemetery’s unconsecrated section.   Alfred’s wife, Mary, continued to run the business.  In 1851 she was enumerated in the Census as a razor manufacturer, employing eight men.  She operated the business until the early 1860s, with her sons Peter, Thomas Radley, and Alfred providing the next generation.   One of those sons, Peter Cadman, razor manufacturer, St Mary’s Road, died on 31 July 1860, aged 31.  His burial (unconsecrated) was in the General Cemetery.   His mother, Mary Cadman, St Mary’s Road, died on 23 August 1877, aged 74 (her burial was also in the General Cemetery and unconsecrated).

By 1871, the enterprise had been taken over by Thomas Radley Cadman (1833-1917), who was Alfred’s son and the grandson of the founder.  He was granted the use of the ‘BENGALL’ mark in 1873.  The firm was located in St Mary’s Road (and remained there until 1938).  It was a small enterprise, employing seven workers in 1871 and 22 a decade later, but it provided a comfortable lifestyle for the family owners.  Thomas was joined by his sons, Thomas Radley Jun. (1859-1934) and Edwin (1867-1921).  Thomas R. Cadman Sen., Kenwood Road, died on 14 March 1917.  He left £12,395.  Edwin Cadman, the founder’s great grandson, died, aged 54, at Sister Tait’s Nursing Home, Glossop Road, on 11 December 1921.  An obituarist recalled: ‘Although a successful businessman, Mr Cadman has for many years been the victim of a distressing malady [paralysis], which prevented him taking an active part in public affairs … but he continued … attending daily at the firm’s premises’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13 December 1921).  He was buried in Ecclesall, leaving £11,885.

In 1924, the firm became a private limited company (capital £21,000) at St Mary’s Road and Matilda Street.  It remained a traditional razor maker, though in the early 1930s briefly marketed a ‘Hare’ safety razor.  Its director, Thomas Radley Cadman Jun., died on 1 September 1934, aged 75.  He was buried in the General Cemetery, leaving £352.   During the War, Cadman’s moved to Matilda Lane, and was kept busy with the sudden demand for traditional hollow-ground razors.  When sales fell away, Bengall Razor Works concentrated on export markets and began making dissection blades and factoring scissors.  The Matilda Lane workshop closed in 1965.  Two Cadmans – both elderly women – were directors.  But Cadman’s former workforce of a hundred had dwindled to three – managing director, Bernard Broomhead, and grinders Alfred Skeels and Jack Platts.  All were in their sixties (and Skeels and Platts had over 90 years’ service). 

^1. Bracey, Laura R, ‘Women Workers in Sheffield’s Metal Trades, c1742-1867’ (Sheffield University PhD, 2016)

^2. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)