On 27 April 1700, the Company of Cutlers granted a corporate mark – D* – to Thomas Nowill (c.1676-1704) as a ‘Maker of Knives’.   After Thomas’s death, this mark was reissued in 1708 to his younger brother, William Nowill (c.1686-?).  From William’s marriage to Ann Carr in 1711, two Nowill companies emerged: Nowill & Kippax and John Nowill & Sons.

One of William’s sons was David Nowill (1733-1775), to whom the D* mark passed in 1764.   David’s son, Thomas Nowill (1758-1836) – granted his Freedom in 1785 – began expanding the business.  In 1786, he partnered Thomas Hague in Hague & Nowill, Garden Street, with £49 capital (and with a silver mark as a ‘plate worker’ and the trade mark ‘D* EHONG’).   This lasted until 1797, when Hague died (London Gazette, 5 August 1797).  Thomas had another partner, William Willis, whose daughter, Ann, he married (their daughter, Ann, would later marry James Dixon.   With Willis as the sleeping partner providing capital, Nowill began trading as Thomas Nowill & Co at Meadow Street.  The workforce varied between about ten and thirty, though Nowill combined cutlery manufacture with victualling.   

Nowill’s cutlery has been described as a ‘wide but unexceptional’ range of pen and pocket knives (Garlick, 1951)¹.  But silver blades were made (Thomas registered silver marks in 1786, 1790, and 1800); and Hunter’s Hallamshire (1875)² referred to one Nowill knife as having ‘a reputation within the living memory of cutlers which has not been surpassed’.   Nowill’s had dedicated craftsmen, such as John Hobson.   Merchants in Sheffield, Birmingham, and London took most of the output.   Thomas’s export trade was ‘entirely for the Turkish market’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 19 July 1892).  This business was conducted indirectly through Sheffield merchants, such as Robert Hadfield & Co and Silcock of Whiteley Wood.   

In 1817, Willis died; Thomas Nowill retired in 1825.   His sons by his wife, Ann née Willis, were William Nowill (1786-1860) and John Nowill (1788-1850).  The latter immediately registered a silver mark.   The Sheffield Directory (1828) listed: ‘William and John Nowill, manufacturers of silver fruit and dessert knives, fancy, pen and pocket and desk knives, also nails, files, button hooks, stilettos, etc., 7 Meadow Street’.  On 28 December 1836, Thomas Nowill died, aged 78, from ‘natural decay’ (as the General Cemetery register termed it).   An obituarist emphasised his ardent Methodism and charitable work and noted: ‘In early life he ranked with the labouring classes of the community, but rose, by industry and integrity, to the station of respectable manufacturer’ (Sheffield Independent, 31 December 1836).   His gravestone can be seen in the General Cemetery (where it marked one of the first unconsecrated burials).

In 1839, his sons separated: William set up in Rockingham Street; John continued in Meadow Street, but soon moved round the corner into Scotland Street.  They advertised in Drake’s Road Book (London, 1840):  William with a simple half-page advertisement; John Nowill & Son with a full-page spread.  The latter proved the more successful and enduring enterprise.  William is recorded as having died on 27 November 1860 and is buried in the General Cemetery.  In 1811, John had married Elizabeth Spencer (1786-1844), which linked Nowills with the steel and file company of Matthias Spencer.  They had eight sons.  The first to join his father was William (1814-1845), who in 1842 was assigned D* and another mark that was to become well known: ‘KROSSKEYS’.   But his wife found him dead in bed on 6 June 1845, aged 30.  An inquest concluded that his death was from ‘natural causes’ (Sheffield Independent, 14 June 1845).  He was buried at St George’s churchyard in Portobello.  The business continued as ‘& Sons’, after John’s other progeny joined the firm:  John II (1818-1900), Henry (1819-1905), Thomas Matthias (1820-1892), Edward (1822-1871), and Arthur (1825-1896).   

Nowill’s never lacked family entrants to the business and its future looked bright.  However, in 1847 the Nowills suffered a setback.  John Nowill and another local pen and pocket knife firm, John Rodgers & Sons, were sued by Joseph Rodgers & Sons.   The latter was the leading cutlery manufacturer in Sheffield, with a world-wide reputation for the quality of its products.  Nowill was charged with infringing the famous Rodgers’ name by selling knives marked ‘J. Rodgers & Sons’.  It proved a landmark legal action, which was eventually settled in the plaintiff’s favour.  Perhaps Nowill’s only defence was that counterfeiting trademarks was relatively common in the nineteenth century, though why a firm of Nowill’s standing should risk its reputation is puzzling.  John Nowill retired after the court case and died on 24 October 1850.  As if to underline that the business was quite capable of producing high-quality cutlery stamped with its own marks, Nowill’s won a Prize Medal at the Great Exhibition in London 1851.  It was awarded for a display of cutlery comprising ladies’ and gentlemen’s’ pocket knives, Indian hunting knives, cases of carved-pearl plated dessert knives and forks, German smoking knives, pencil knives, and an ‘assortment of knives for the Levant trade’.  Nowill’s won another medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1855.

Under John Nowill II, the firm expanded steadily: in 1851 it employed fifty men and boys; by 1881, the work-force had reached a hundred.  Its reputation was based on its high-quality pen, pocket and sporting knives, scissors, razors, and table cutlery.  Not all of these products would have been made by Nowill’s: many would have been commissioned from Sheffield’s army of skilled outworkers, many of whom worked in the courtyards and backstreets around Scotland Street.  When the market for sterling silver products (and especially electro-plate) boomed after the 1880s, Nowill’s were alive to the opportunities.  The firm registered further silver marks in 1881 and 1901.   Nowill’s had established an office at Hatton Garden in London’s jewellery centre, which it had opened by the late 1860s, so it was well-placed to exploit the demand for luxury goods in the metropolis.  

John Nowill II had married twice and had fifteen offspring.  His first marriage to Ellen Oakden Bradley had produced the next crop of recruits to the firm: Charles Richard Nowill (1850-1910), Sidney Nowill (1851-1920), Stephen Nowill (1858-1926), Bradley Nowill (1859-1918), and John ‘Jack’ Spencer Nowill (1861-1934).   After the 1850s, Turkey again became the key to Nowill’s fortunes.  The linchpin was Sidney, who as a teenager had left for Constantinople in 1867.  According to a Nowill descendant, the trigger was an ‘incandescent row’ between Sidney and his father (Nowill, 2011³).   Sidney’s move abroad was regarded as an audacious step.   However, it may have been a considered one, given the previous Nowill connection with Turkey.   John Nowill had started receiving enquiries again from Constantinople for Nowill’s goods.   It may be relevant that Nowill’s was simultaneously making a push into other exports markets.   Harrison Nowill (1847-1924) – the son of Henry – had been sent in 1872 to open an agency at Sydney in Australia (Gronvald, 1994⁴).   

In 1874, Sidney established a small import agency, Sidney Nowill & Co, in Constantinople.  Sidney later asked his younger brother, Stephen, to join him.  Their agency became a major outlet for Nowill’s cutlery.  By the 1880s, Nowill’s in Sheffield stated that their business through Constantinople was so large that it was not uncommon for them to have a year’s orders on the books for their specialities (Sheffield Independent, 13 March 1886).   Besides targeting Turkey, Sidney established a successful retail business in Athens in 1885.   Sidney also had business interests in Egypt, which he visited frequently.  Ironically, Nowill’s trademarks became so well known in the Near East that they were counterfeited by certain German makers.   

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a generation of the Nowills began to pass from the scene.  Thomas M. Nowill died at College Gardens, Dulwich, on 13 September 1892, aged 71.  He was buried in Sheffield General Cemetery.  His eldest son, Thomas Spencer Nowill (1847-1890), had joined the firm, but died from consumption, aged 41.  Most of the Nowills died wealthy: Edward left nearly £5,000; Thomas Matthias, £9,762; Arthur, £20,914; and Henry, £22,455.   When John Nowill died on 21 February 1900, aged 82, at Sandygate House, Ivy Park Road, he left £23,870 (worth nearly £3m today).  He was buried in the family vault at Christ Church, Fulwood.  His son, Charles, who had become a partner in 1878, next headed the company.  He lived at Newlands, Ranmoor, and became a Conservative town councillor.  He died on 16 February 1910, leaving £5,893, and was buried in the family vault at Fulwood (where he had been church warden).   The management had already passed to his younger brother, Jack.

Sidney later returned to England and settled in Sandygate House.  In 1900, he married Marian Foster (who was 24 years his junior).  On a voyage to Egypt in about 1910, the Nowills met James Arthur Delay, a wealthy and retired Singapore solicitor, who was aged about 45.  Mrs Nowill and Delay became golfing and holiday companions.   In November 1912, they stayed at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay – Marian accompanied by her mother.   On 23 November after an argument with Delay, Mrs Nowill was reported missing.  Delay became frantic and ‘temporarily mad’ (Hull Daily Mail, 17 December 1912).  On 25 November, he was found hanging in his hotel room.  Marian’s body was found over a week later in the sea at the foot of the cliffs near the hotel (apparently she, too, had killed herself).  It transpired that Delay (supposedly a bachelor) had not only married a divorcee a year previously, but had also added a codicil to his will leaving £30,000 to Marian.  These events, the subsequent inquests, and the burial of Marian at Fulwood attracted international press coverage (Tweedale, 2020⁵).  

By 1914, Nowill’s described itself as ‘manufacturers of cutlery of the highest possible quality’, with an estimated workforce of about 300 (Whitaker’s Red Book, 1914).   But the First World War disrupted the cutlery trade and Nowill’s business in the Near East foundered.  Sidney died from cirrhosis of the liver at Sandygate House on 17 March 1920, aged 68.  His obituary did not mention Marian, though Sidney was buried with her remains in Fulwood (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 18 March 1920).   Sidney’s wealth had been severely reduced by the war, but he still left £122,382 (the equivalent of over £5.3m today).   

Stephen,  who had been interned in Turkey during the war, died from cancer in Constantinople on 23 August 1926.  His estate was worth £12,417.  Bradley had died on 30 May 1918, leaving £5,325.  Frank Nowill (son of Henry), who was active in the business before the First World War, died on 4 June 1925, aged 83, leaving £3,322.   In the early 1920s, the key Nowill partners included – besides Jack – Ernest (son of Thomas Matthias), who handled the London trade; and Frederick William (1883-1953), who was the son of Frank.   Ernest died on 7 June 1926.  Within weeks, Nowill’s became ‘Ltd’, with £7,000 capital and Jack Nowill,  F. W. Nowill, and  John Clifford Foster Nowill (son of Bradley) as directors.   Nowill descendants continued to be active in Athens and Istanbul.  In 1927, Sidney Nowill Ltd was registered with £15,000 capital and with Jack Nowill, Sidney John Payn Nowill (1894-1956) – the son of Stephen – and J. C. F. Nowill and G. N. Tasker (a solicitor and relative) as partners.

In the 1920s, Nowill’s continued to produce fine table knives (now made with stainless steel), pocket cutlery, and razors.  The latter were marked ‘1700’, ‘LEADER’, ‘TRAVELLER’, ‘WORLD’S RAZOR’, or ‘KROSSKEYS’.  But like most Sheffield firms, Nowill’s suffered badly in the depression.  Unable to service the debt on its debentures, in 1932 Nowill’s Cutlery Works went bankrupt.  The Scotland Street premises and the stock were offered for sale (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 17 September 1932).   Jack Nowill retired and died in 1934 (leaving only £101).  He was buried at Fulwood.  Somehow J. C. F. Nowill and Jack’s son William Esmond Nowill (1890-1978) regained control of the company and it continued to trade at Scotland Street.  They had bought at auction the assets and marks of another cutlery manufacturer, Frank Mills Ltd.  Sidney Nowill Ltd continued as the ‘only English department store in Athens’.  

During the War, the Scotland Street factory was blitzed.  J. C. F. Nowill died in 1944, aged 52.  In 1947, Esmond Nowill sold out to F. E. & J. R. Hopkinson Ltd, a maker of hunting and scout knives, which continued to use the Nowill marks.  These were later acquired by J. Adams Ltd.   Sidney Nowill & Co Ltd had continued to do business in Istanbul during the interwar years and it was still doing well (under Sidney’s descendants) in the 1950s.   The last Nowill associated with that firm returned to England in 1993. 

.

^1. Garlick, P C, ‘Cutlery Progress over 250 Years: Notes on the History of Sheffield Cutlery and Allied Trades since 1700’, International Cutler 1-3 (Autumn 1951-February 1953)

^2. Hunter, Joseph, Hallamshire:  The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York  Revised edn by Alfred Gatty (Sheffield, 1869, 3rd edition, 1875) 

^3. Nowill, Sidney E P, Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey (Kibworth, 2011)

^4. Gronvald, Nowill, The Nowill and Gronvald Families (1994)

^5. Tweedale, G, Fiction Eclipsed: The Mysterious Disappearance of Mrs Nowill (2020)