Trade advertisements dated Elliot’s to 1795. According to family sources (personal communication from Joanna Teague, 3 April 2010), the firm has so far been traced to Joseph Elliot (c.1760-30 July 1830), who had ten children. The first directory listing was in 1822, when Joseph Elliot (his son?), a razor manufacturer, was based in Sambourn Square, Edward Street. Three years later the firm re-located to its nineteenth-century address:  Hollis Croft. The key individual in the early nineteenth century was Joseph Elliot, a razor maker, who had been born in Sheffield in about 1801. An individual of that name was granted his Freedom by the Company of Cutlers in 1835, after apprenticeship as a razor maker. By 1833, Joseph had been joined by John Elliot (possibly a brother) – a partnership that lasted until 1850.  The identity of this ‘John’ is uncertain (an uncertainty increased by ‘Eliot’ sometimes appearing in directories as ‘Elliott’), but he was probably the John Elliot listed subsequently as a razor manufacturer in nearby Townhead Street.  Certainly the razors made by the Elliots acquired great repute in ‘England and abroad, especially in America’ (Sheffield Independent, 2 March 1844).

By 1856, Joseph had been joined by his eldest son, Joseph Edwin Elliot (1829-1899), and the firm was restyled Joseph Elliot & Son. Another son, Thomas Henry Elliot (born c.1837), was also soon active in the business. Now listed as a merchant and manufacturer, Elliot’s dealt in razors, table cutlery (including plated desserts), palette knives and scissors. The firm received an Honourable Mention at the Great Exhibition (1851); and exhibited at the New York Exhibition in 1853.

Elliot’s neighbour was George Hides, whose factory provided power for Elliot’s workers. The craftsmanship was superb. Curtis Guild, an American visitor to Elliot’s workshops in 1868, noted that their razors ‘are celebrated for their excellence both in England and this country [USA]’.  However, he was surprised to find the workmen ‘not altogether in one factory, but in different buildings … little dingy nooks and corners in a series of old rookeries of buildings, often badly lighted, cramped and inconvenient, and difficult of access’ (Guild, 1871, quoted in Sheffield Independent, 5 December 1868). Guild met one of the partners, ‘a man who owns his elegant country house, and enjoys a handsome income, but who was in his great wareroom, with his workmen’s apron on – a badge which he seemed to wear as a matter of course, and in no way affecting his position’ (Guild, 1871).

Joseph Elliot, Western Bank, died on 2 August 1874, aged 73, and was buried in Ecclesall churchyard. He left under £5,000. Joseph E. Elliot – who was granted his Freedom in 1874 – succeeded him as senior partner in the company, and managed the firm alongside a brother, James William Elliot (1841-1904).  As the company expanded, table knives became important.  In 1881, the firm employed 110 men. Its trade mark was a Maltese Cross and two ‘C’s (granted in 1805). In 1898, it registered a silver mark. It also acquired the set square-compass and WOLF marks of John Barber; the ‘USE YOUR TIME WELL’ scissors mark of Pryor Brothers; and the mark of George Woodhead & Son.  Apparently, Elliot’s also manufactured the ‘Kropp’ razor for a London retailer.

Joseph E. Elliot, Thornleigh, Northumberland Road, died on 15 November 1899. He was buried in Fulwood, leaving £32,181. James William Elliot then briefly took control of the firm (helped by his son, Gilbert).  James William, however, died from a stroke at his home Brinkburn Grange, Dore, on 3 June 1904, aged 62 (leaving £14,568). He was buried in Ecclesall. Joseph Greaves Elliot (the son of J.E. Elliot, who was born in 1856) assumed control. In about 1900, the firm had bought the assets of Allen & Son, which included Allen’s trade mark (three Maltese Crosses) and afterwards Elliot’s renamed the Hollis Croft factory as Granville Works (Allen’s old factory name). Hollis Croft remained the firm’s address during the First World War, when it advertised most types of knives:  carving knives, pocket cutlery, and table and plated ware.  

 In 1919, Elliot’s was incorporated as part of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers Ltd, a merger led by Needham, Veall & Tyzack.  In 1921, Elliot’s became ‘Ltd’, with £30,000 capital.  Elliot was  to provide support for group member, Lockwood.  In 1923, Elliot’s moved to Lockwood’s site at Spital Hill. But Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers did not survive the 1920s. In 1926, Elliot’s emerged from the fiasco and occupied Sylvester Works, 1 Sylvester Street of Thomas Ellin. In 1927, a private limited company, Joseph Elliot & Sons (Sheffield) Ltd. was formed.

Elliot’s achieved greater prominence after 1945, as the decline of the industry left it with fewer competitors and a windfall of available marks. Besides acquiring the Ellin marks, Elliot bought those of James Barber, Thomas Renshaw, John Wigfall, John Wilson, and Lockwood Bros.  In a listing of marks by the Company of Cutlers (Whitham and Sykes, 1953), Elliot’s took up four pages. Ellin and Lockwood Bros were advertised by Elliot in The Ironmonger Diary (1952) as stand-alone brands.

The chairman, Joseph G. Elliot, Tapton House Road, died on 6 November 1949, aged 93. He left £81,455 to his three sons – (Joseph) Hawksley Elliot (1884-18 February 1978), George Hawksley Elliot (1891-1986), and John Gilbert Elliot (1895-1980). George was a retired army colonel and never concerned himself with the business. Of the others: 

Mr Hawksley and Mr John … both travelled for the firm, Hawksley particularly in Scotland. He had no car and used to do everything by train and this was probably when he was 80.  John did Ireland, particularly southern Ireland, where they had a very good connection with their Barber mark for pen and pocket knives, and in the old days, razors.  They also had one or two more travellers (W.G.M. Ragg letter to author, 2 November 1995).

In Sheffield, the brothers relied upon Arthur Revitt, who had started in the firm’s grinding shops, but later became a director and managed the factory.  In 1972,  W. D. Slater (of Herbert M. Slater) and Jack Taylor, who owned the cutlery materials manufacturer J. Dewsnap Bowler Ltd, decided to buy Elliot’s.  Taylor recalled that Elliot’s still traded under all their old names – Lockwood, Wilson, Barber, and Ellin – and had letterheads and invoices to match. ‘We nationalised under one name, but kept the goods under each trade mark’ (Taylor letter to author, 8 November 1995). By then, it was one of the last Sheffield firms to preserve the traditional methods.  Hand-forgers (such as Albert Craven) and grinders could still be seen at Elliot’s in the 1970s and early 1980s and it still sold hunting and pocket knives.  Jack Taylor retired in 1986 and Arthur Revitt left in about 1990 (when he was into his 80s).  By then, production at Sylvester Works had ceased and the company was wound up in 1998. The factory has since been renovated and the Elliot name on the frontage removed.