The prime mover in this silverplate enterprise was Robert William Gainsford (1773-1860).  His family came from Worksop, where in the eighteenth century Gainsfords became involved in estate management and farming.  In 1766, Robert Gainsford, of Lodge Farm, Worksop Manor, married Mary Fenton, who was the daughter of Matthew Fenton, a Sheffield silversmith.   Fenton had lodged a mark at the Sheffield Assay Office in 1773 – the second maker to do so.  Robert Gainford’s son, Robert William (usually known simply as Robert), was born at Worksop in the same year.  By 1793, Robert Gainsford was a partner in silver plater Proctor & Co, alongside Luke Proctor, George Kibble, John Weaver, Charles Roe, and George Eadon.  In 1795, Proctor & Co was dissolved.  Gainsford next joined Alexander Goodman and George Fairbairn in silver plate manufacturer Goodman, Gainsford & Fairbairn.  In 1796, they registered a silver mark from Hawley Croft.  In the following year, the firm was listed at Park, from where it registered another silver mark in 1801.  James French in London was recruited as an additional partner, but the enterprise was terminated in 1808.

Robert Gainsford & Co was soon established at Eyre Street.  In 1808, Robert registered a silver mark (‘R.G’) and another mark for silver wares (‘GAINSFORD’, with two elephant heads).  Robert Gainsford, who was a Roman Catholic, made a speciality of church plate and in London had a ‘Catholic vendor’ for such articles.  Gainsford was joined by Thomas Nicholson.   In 1816, Gainsford, Nicholson & Co was listed in a directory as a silver and plated manufacturer at Charles Street.   Its later address was Eyre Street.  By the mid-1820s, the enterprise was Gainsford, Fenton & Nicholson.  The new partner was Henry Fenton (bapt. 1788-1840), who was the son of Francis Fenton, a Sheffield merchant in charge of Roebuck & Fenton.  

In the 1820s, besides the Eyre Street manufactory, Gainsford, Fenton & Nicholson had warehouses at Bouverie Street in London and Eustace Street in Dublin.  A business card, dated 1820 and reproduced in Bradbury (1912), depicted the Eyre Street factory, with its typical three-storied layout and arched entrance.  In 1827, Robert Gainsford left Eyre Street to live at Totley and Nicholson and Fenton seem to have managed the Eyre Street premises.  Business fluctuated: the firm’s sales declined between 1812 and 1825, recovered in 1826 to £12,000 a year, but were then hit in 1832 by a slump in the plating trade (Bradbury, 1912).

The firm was dissolved in 1834 and the remaining stock was offered for sale.  An advertisement in the following year, stated that stock valued at £3,000 remained on sale (Sheffield Independent, 31 January 1835).  Thomas Nicholson later worked at James Dixon & Sons.  Henry Fenton became involved as an edge tool manufacturer in Fenton & Marsden (see Marsden Bros & Co).  In 1841, Robert William Gainsford was living with his son – Robert John Gainsford (1808-1870) – at Arundel Street.  In the Census (1851), he had retired to Worksop, where he died on 22 November 1852.   His son became a well-known solicitor in Sheffield.  Details on the Gainsfords can be found in the diaries of Thomas Asline Ward (Bell, 1909¹) and in the researches of Robert E. Leader (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8 June, 2 July 1907).

^1. Bell , Alexander B (ed), Peeps into the Past: Being Passages from the Diary of Thomas Asline Ward (Sheffield, 1909)