This enterprise, which manufactured silver, electro-plate, Britannia wares and cutlery, was apparently founded in 1871, when it was listed at Charlotte Street Works, with George Shadford Lee as the senior partner.  The other partner was Henry (‘Harry’) Wigfull (1845-1908).  The latter was the son of Joshua Wigfull (1810-1877) and his wife, Ann. Joshua was a prosperous miller, maltster, and corn dealer, who operated Sheaf Corn Mills, Forge Lane.  He left under £25,000 and had six sons.  Two of them, Richard Wigfull (1838-1904) and Thomas Dickon Wigfull (1843-1891), took over the family firm.  Richard eventually became a brewer and left a fortune of £151,886.  Meanwhile, Henry began working as a Britannia metal smith.

In 1877, Lee & Wigfull registered the silver mark ‘GSL/HW’ from John Street Works, Highfield.  Two years later, the Lee & Wigfull partnership ended, and Henry Wigfull registered his own silver mark ‘HW’, with the name of the business unchanged.  In 1881, Henry employed 50 men and 50 women at Stag Works in John Street.  In 1882, Edward S. Potter (aged 17) died at John Street after suffering horrific injuries, when he became entangled in buffing bands/pulleys.  The coroner stated that he had officiated at a dozen such inquests in the last six years (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 5 June 1882).  In 1899, Lee & Wigfull became ‘Ltd’ (capital £50,000).  The shares were held by Henry and his family, which now included sons William Henry, Benjamin Taylor, and Joshua.  The firm had a London office at Holborn Viaduct, and exported to Australasia.  In 1880, Lee & Wigfull was awarded a first-class award at the Melbourne International Exhibition (Sheffield Independent, 13 July 1880).  By the 1890s, the firm had agencies in Melbourne, Sydney, and Dunedin (New Zealand).

Henry Wigfull died at Chelsea House, Brincliffe, on 11 October 1908, aged 62, and was buried in Ecclesall.  He left effects valued at £36,802.  His sons Benjamin Taylor Wigfull (1877-1948) and William Henry Wigfull (1871-?) continued the business, alongside Richard Bannister Wigfull (1868-1941).  (R. B Wigfull is unidentified, but he was born in New South Wales and may have been the offspring of Henry’s son, Joshua.) Benjamin T. Wigfull was director of the company and its home traveller for twenty years, when he retired in about 1928.  He died on 6 July 1948, aged 71, at his home in Riverdale Road.  The funeral was at Sheffield Crematorium.  He left £2,791.  R. B. Wigfull had spent twenty-three years with the firm, when he established a jewellery business in Plymouth.  He was regarded as an authority on silverware and antiques.  He died on 11 January 1941, aged 72, and was buried at Efford Cemetery, Plymouth.  He left £2,379.

According to Culme (1987)¹, Lee & Wigfull’s London showroom was acquired by Cooper Bros in 1941.  Lee & Wigfull continued in John Street after the Second World War, when the family interest had apparently lapsed.  By the early 1960s, it was part of the Sipelia Group (see Sippel) and was last listed in 1969.  Its trade marks included an anchor with the initials ‘GSL’ and ‘HW’; a sailor brandishing a cutlass and a Union Jack ensign (acquired from Benjamin Grayson); and the words ‘ALBION SILVER’.

^1. Culme, John, The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, Jewellers and Allied Traders 1838-1914 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2 vols, 1987)