Established in about 1730 in Orchard Place – where it remained throughout most of the nineteenth century – this horn merchant was said to have been the oldest in the trade.  The Fisher’s history is discussed in Leader (1905)¹ and especially in Taylor (1927)².  It was founded by John Fisher, who passed the business to his son, also named John.  In 1787, John was listed as a haft presser in Church Lane.  It eventually supplied the cutlery trade with a wide range of scales (handles) in horn, bone, ivory, tortoiseshell, and pearl.  It also made umbrella hooks.  

By 1818, two Fisher descendants, Robert and William, were running the business.  William Fisher (1780-1861) became the most prominent, both in business and local affairs, until his retirement in 1856.  He died on 29 November 1861, aged 81.  His unconsecrated burial was in the General Cemetery (he was a Unitarian at Upper Chapel, which has a memorial marble plaque with relievo portrait by J. B. Fidler).  William’s son, William Fisher (1813-1880), enhanced the firm’s reputation, though it retained its small-scale character.  By 1871, the Orchard Place works employed 22 men and a boy.   Fisher’s was said to have been the first firm to undertake the pressing of horn machete scales, which sold readily in Europe, the Colonies, and America.  William became Alderman and Mayor.  He was wealthy and lived in Norton Grange, Norton.  He died after a stroke at Tunbridge Wells on 25 March 1880, aged 67, and was buried in unconsecrated ground in the General Cemetery.  He left under £18,000.  After the death of his widow, Ellen Fisher (1808-1885), the residue of his estate was bequeathed to the Fisher Institution, which dispensed funds to needy women (mostly Unitarians, Catholics, and Jews).  The management passed to his nephew, Thomas Edward Atkin (c.1839-1903), and his manager Joseph Travers (1848-1909).  However, Atkin withdrew in 1892.  By the end of the 1890s, Orchard Place was abandoned and Joseph Travers moved to Furnival Street.  In 1899, he formed William Fisher, Travers & Co with a capital of £2,000.  It was based in Union Lane, but was soon defunct.  

^1. Leader, R E, Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century (Sheffield, 2nd edn, 1905)

^2. Taylor, Wilmot, The Sheffield Horn Industry (Sheffield, 1927)