This enterprise was a manufacturer of pen and sportsman’s knives at Scotland Street.  The partners were William Hatfield and John Morton.   Their background is obscure.  The name William Hatfield occurs in connection with several Sheffield cutlery partnerships, but it is not always possible to say if it was the same man.  The following chronology is, therefore, somewhat tentative.  William Hatfield may have been born about 1760.  He married Sarah Betts in 1781.  Apprenticeship records (compiled by Leader, 1905-06¹) offer only scraps of information (though there is a reference to William Hatfield, who was apprenticed to his father, William, and granted his Freedom in 1791).   Interestingly, in 1792 a silver mark was registered by Robert Barnard and William Hadfield [Hatfield?].   The history of Clarks, Hatfield & Co – possibly linked with Clark & Hall – may also be relevant.  

In 1799, a silver mark was registered by William Hatfield (and Daniel Barnard and John Settle) as plate workers at Scotland Street.  This partnership was dissolved in 1801.  In the following year, a silver mark was registered by John Settle and William Hatfield at 16 Scotland Street.  This was likely the Hatfield, whose apprentice, Joseph Hunter, became a Freeman in 1804.   Hunter joined Hatfield and Settle (see Hatfield & Hunter), but in 1805 left to become a minister and antiquarian.

By 1811, Hatfield & Morton had been launched at Scotland Street under William Hatfield and John Morton.  It continued trading into the early 1820s.  Morton evidently also traded as a scale and haft presser.  In 1820, John Morton (Tudor Street, Surrey Street) announced that he was ‘declining the cutlery business’.  He offered at auction a range of working tools (glazers, buffs, vices, and stithies), materials (ebony, cocoa, and other woods), and blades and scales for pen knives and razors; ‘also several useful articles of household furniture’ (Sheffield Independent, 15 April 1820).   This might suggest that Morton had financial troubles.  In 1824, Hatfield & Morton filed for bankruptcy.  A  sale of fine cutlery was advertised, which listed:

Upwards of five hundred cards of pen, pocket, and lobster knives, manufactured in the first style of excellence, and of the most expensive and beautiful materials.  A considerable portion of the cards are in value from five pounds to eleven pounds each card.  Many of the knives are worth from 24s to 18s each.  There are several thousand different patterns, and every useful kind.  The scales are chiefly pearl or tortoise shell, with many silver, stag, ivory, or polished steel, etched or gilt.  Many of the knives have twenty-four, eighteen or twelve blades.  Nearly all are finished in a superior manner, with silver backs, bolsters, roses, and raised shields; also many with silver blades.  There are also eighty dozens of sportsmen’s knives, the greater part of which are worth £5 per dozen, and are finished with all useful instruments … (Sheffield Independent, 20 November 1824).   

In the following year, the leasehold of the premises at Scotland Street – ‘well adapted to carrying on of almost any branch of the Sheffield trade’ – was auctioned (Sheffield Independent, 21 January 1825).  

Hatfield and Morton resumed business separately.  In 1825, William Hatfield was listed as a merchant and pen and pocket knife manufacturer, Grindlegate (this was an alleyway behind Scotland Street at its junction with Westbar Green).   He also appeared in Pigot & Co’s National Commercial Directory for 1828-29.  However, he had apparently died by the early 1830s.  In the Sheffield directory (1833), his daughters, Ann (1784-1871) and Elizabeth (1788-1867) were listed at 14 Grindlegate as pen knife manufacturers.  By 1837, they were pen knife manufacturers and hosiers.  Later they became earthenware dealers.   They were buried at Underbank Chapel Cemetery (Unitarian), Stannington.   Frustratingly, the burial place of their father has so far not been traced.  

In 1825, John Morton was listed as a pen and pocket knife manufacturer, Tudor Street.   In 1828, he was listed as a haft and scale presser; and manufacturer of pen, pocket, and table knives at 7 Tudor Street.  His death date is uncertain.  However, he may have been the John Morton, of Red Hill, who died on 30 November 1834, aged 53.  He was described in the burial register of St Peter & St Paul as a warehouseman.  His ‘relict’, Bridget Eleanor Morton, died on 12 May 1839, aged 55.   Her burial was in the same churchyard.

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