The Henfreys were scissor smiths.  According to Leader (1905-6)¹ and letters in the press (Sheffield Independent, 2, 9 November 1874) the family came from scissor smiths long connected with Attercliffe.   In 1774, John and Benjamin Henfrey, makers of fine scissors and snuffers, were based in Norfolk Street, with the marks ‘ED’ and ‘AF’.  Apparently, they were brothers.  By 1787, John Henfrey was working alone.   He may have been the John Henfrey, son of John, who became a Freeman in 1758.  His workshops and his first residence were at the Surrey Street end of Eyre Street.   Henfrey became Master Cutler in 1792.  In the previous year, Thomas, the son of silver-plater Thomas Leader Sen. (see Tudor & Leader), had eloped with Henfrey’s daughter Sarah to Gretna Green.  After local excitement had abated, a more orthodox ceremony took place and Henfrey’s son-in-law eventually occupied the Eyre Street house.  

After about 1788, Henfrey himself built Charnwood, a house in Sharrow Lane, on which he planned to spend at least £500.   According to Leader (1905)², this was to the ‘astonishment of his friends who wondered how he could venture along Sheffield Moor after dark’.   John Henfrey died on 11 August 1816, aged 81, and was buried in St Paul’s churchyard.  The business then appears to have vanished, but in the early 1820s the scissor smiths Benjamin & Joseph Raworth were described as ‘late John Henfrey’.  Henfrey’s nephew was Samuel Henfrey.  Charnwood became a hotel.

^1. Leader, R E, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire in the County of York (Sheffield, 1905-6)

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