James Moorhouse was born in Knottingly, near Pontefract, in about 1784.  According to Leader (1905-6)¹, his father was a farmer.  By 1815, he was part of Moorhouse, Rushworth & Steele, as a pen and pocket knife manufacturer.  When this partnership was dissolved in 1828, Moorhouse continued to trade in Devonshire Street as a manufacturer of pen and sportsman’s knives.  He married Jane Frances née Bowman and they had one son, James Moorhouse (1826-1915).   The latter recalled his father as:

one of the best men I ever knew – absolutely true, just, and straightforward.  He could not do a mean or shabby thing.  He had wonderful brain-power, a stern outside, but a very tender heart; and though usually undemonstrative was devotedly attached to his wife and children.  He hated business and all tricks of the trade, and I have often heard my mother tell him, James, you have no push.  He cared very little for money, popularity, or society.  I never knew anybody who needed less from outside sources.  He was a real student, a lover of books, and a deep thinker; he would always go to the bottom of things, especially in religious questions (Rickards, 1920²).  

Despite his diffidence, James Moorhouse Sen. (who was Master Cutler in 1840) operated a sizeable cutlery enterprise: according to the Census (1851), he employed 33 men.  By 1861, he had retired and was living at Wharncliffe Villas, Broomhall Road.   His daughter, Mary Elizabeth, married Edwin James Buxton.  He died at his home on 22 September 1862, aged 78, and was buried in Ecclesall.  His son was groomed to take over the family firm, but inherited his father’s piety and soon left the business.  He eventually became bishop of Melbourne.

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

^2. Rickards, Edith, Bishop Moorhouse of Melbourne and Manchester (London, 1920)