Ashton, Jackson & Co was launched in about 1841 in South Street as an American merchant, cutlery and file manufacturer.  One partner was William Jackson (b. 15 April 1814), the son of William (a cutler) and his wife, Sarah; the other was Richard Ashton, who was the son of Richard (a silver plater) and his wife, Nancy.  They had an office in New York.  Ashton and Jackson were joined briefly by Abraham Howe (who may have been the brewer and farmer involved with Mottram, Cooper & Co,).   Richard Ashton died at his Broom Cross residence on 13 November 1846, aged 36.  William Jackson continued as Ashton, Jackson in South Street and New York until about 1850, when he began trading under his own name.  He was described in the Census (1851) as a 35-year-old hardware merchant employing three men and four boys.  He lived in Broomfield House, Glossop Road, with his wife Harriet and a two-year-old son, William Frederick.  Harriet died on 28 May 1854, aged 30, from consumption.

In 1853, Jackson moved to Sheaf Island Works, Pond Hill.  This factory once stood on the site of the present bus station (close to the Midland railway station).  It was a large works that had (if the engravings are accurate) converting furnaces and crucible melting shops.  It became home to a variety of individuals and trades, so Jackson did not own the whole factory.  Sheaf Island Works may have been built as a response to the burgeoning American trade.  In 1851, Wm. Jackson & Co had a New York office in Pearl Street (with C. Padley) and another in Commerce Street, Philadelphia.  In 1853, Jackson exhibited steel, saws, and cutlery at the New York Exhibition. 

Jackson’s sold steel and tools, though it also advertised table and pocket cutlery, and scissors and razors.  It produced Bowie knives, as illustrated in Adams et al (1990)¹ and Flayderman (2004)².  Some of the Bowies exported by Jackson were spear points, stamped ‘RIO GRANDE CAMP KNIFE’.  Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth (and a co-conspirator), brandished Jackson ‘Rio Grande’ Bowie knives (Russell, 1967; Newman, 1998³; Taylor, 2013⁴), Jackson’s trade mark was a set-square and compass, above which was a Maltese Cross.  This mark had been granted in 1795 to James Cornthwaite, a file maker, and assigned to Jackson in about 1852.  He officially registered it in 1877.  The widow of John Barber tried unsuccessfully to claim that Jackson had no legal right to the mark, because it resembled Barber’s (Sheffield Independent, 7 April 1869).  Jackson also used a ram’s head (picture) and the words ‘R. VERNON & SONS’ and ‘IMPERIAL’.

In 1861, William Jackson, ‘merchant and manufacturer’, lived at Sharrow Mount.  Between 1861 and 1866, he was in partnership with Edward Newton, with the firm styled as Jackson, Newton & Co.  In 1872, Joseph Rodgers & Sons successfully applied for an injunction against William Jackson for sourcing knives from James Boden that had been marked with a fictional Rodgers’ name (Sheffield Independent, 24 January 1872).  The case was dismissed.  By then, the firm was William Jackson & Sons, with William’s brother, Charles Jackson (1818-1891), living in Lawson Road, Broomhill, listed as partner.  Both Charles and William had retired by 1881.  William was living in Jordanthorpe, though he later returned to Sheffield to live at Whiteley Wood.  He died at Hodsock Park, Worksop, on 26 December 1894, aged 80.  He was buried alongside Harriet in the unconsecrated part of the General Cemetery.  He left £1,636.  Charles died at Kenwood Villa, Lawson Road, on 23 March 1891, aged 72.  He was buried in Fulwood, leaving £2,437.

William Frederick Jackson became the senior partner.  In 1905, however, W. F. Jackson and his younger brother Arthur Moore Brightmore Jackson sold the business.  Sheaf Island Works was taken over by Joseph Rodgers & Sons.  The address of ‘Sheaf Island Works’ shifted to Green Lane, Neepsend, and by the early 1920s the Jackson name had been taken by the saw and tool maker, Alfred Beckett & Co.  Jackson’s was still listed in the 1960s. William F. Jackson himself lived at Broadstorth in Dore.  He died on 11 July 1944, aged 95, leaving £38,273.  His wife, Emilie Marian, survived him until 1963, when she died aged 100.  Their grave is at Christ Church in Dore.

^1. Adams, W, Voyles, J  B, and Moss, T, The Antique Bowie Knife Book (Conyers, Georgia, 1990)  
^2. Flayderman, Norm, The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend (Woonsocket, RI, 2004)
^3. Newman, Marc, Civil War Knives (Boulder, Colorado, 1998)
^4. Taylor, Dave, ‘Cloak and Daggers’, Knife World (4 April 2013)