Established in 1840, this firm manufactured powder and later dram flasks, alongside sporting requisites.  The partners were George Hawksley (c.1806-1879) and John William Hawksley (c.1814-1890), who were the sons of Hollis Croft horn merchant, John Hawksley.  In the 1840s, the business operated in Smithfield; by the 1850s it was in Carver Street.  According to the Census, the firm employed 60 workers in 1851; and 45 (26 men, 8 women, and 9 boys) in 1861.  The partnership was dissolved in 1870, though John Greaves Hawksley (1840-1885) and Joseph Hawksley (born 1845) – sons of George – continued the family connection.   George Hawksley, Glossop Road, died on 5 August 1879, aged 73, and was buried in an unconsecrated grave in the General Cemetery.  John William Hawksley died at Spring Vale House, Gloucester Crescent, on 29 May 1890, aged 76.  He had been a director of the Water Company and the Hallamshire Bank.  A Congregationalist, he was buried at Loxley (Sheffield Independent, 28 May 1890).  The brothers died wealthy:  they left about £14,000 and £36,784, respectively.

John G. Hawksley, Ivy Crescent Road, died on 21 June 1885, leaving £3,484.  Two years later, the firm became a limited liability company.  In 1889, it registered a silver mark.  The address was Carver Works, Carver Street, which was a three-storied building (The Century’s Progress, 1893).  A trade catalogue (courtesy of Frank Hudson) shows that the firm sold deer stalking and Bowie knives, and other types of sportsmen’s knives.   The trade mark was a bird and letter, with the word ‘DESPATCH’.  Hawksley’s continued to trade in the twentieth century, until in 1957 the assets were acquired by James Dixon & Sons.