A Directory of Sheffield (1787) listed Joseph Makin as a fork maker at Hollis Croft.   The family was known for the manufacture of forks, but few details are available on Joseph’s background.  He may have been born in about 1746, the son of John and Elizabeth.  He was apparently the brother or half-brother of James Makin (Master Cutler in 1803).  In 1790, Joseph offered a reward for the capture of an apprentice – Samuel Hague, aged 19, about ‘five feet high’ – who had absconded (Sheffield Register, 9 April 1790).  In the same year, Joseph was involved in a deed of assignment, which had been made to him by table knife cutler, John Crookes (Sheffield Register, 16 July 1790).  Amongst Crookes’ other creditors was John Green, who later married Joseph Makin’s daughter, Ann (Leeds Intelligencer, 10 March 1794).  Green may have been part of Green & Hague, a table knife manufacturer.  

Joseph Makin became a partner in Makins, Green & Hallam, a merchant and manufacturer of cutlery wares.  It registered a silver mark from Hollis Croft in 1798.  The other partners were George Makin, John Green, and Samuel Hallam (though the latter withdrew in 1801).   George was probably Joseph’s brother.  He, too, left the firm and eventually it traded as Makins & Green.  It was dissolved in 1804.  Joseph died in the following year and was buried on 8 December at the parish churchyard.  His executrix was his widow, Fanny née Denton, whom had married in 1769.  He left an estate worth nearly £3,500 (over £300,000 at current prices.)  In 1811, Joseph Makin & Co was listed as a merchant and manufacturer at Hollis Croft, perhaps managed by Fanny.   But after her death (she was buried on 3 January 1811 in the same graveyard as her late husband), the firm disappeared.  However, this branch of the family retained some involvement in forks.  George Makin (1791-1835), of Willey Street, was described as a fork maker, when he died on 7 July 1835 (and was buried at the parish church).  He was apparently the son of George, Joseph’s brother.