The Pattens (sometimes spelled Paten or Pattin) manufactured pen and pocket knives from the early 1700s.  Their mark (‘PATEN’ and a Maltese cross), granted to George Patten in 1737, was well known enough by the 1760s for other Sheffield makers to imitate it.   In 1766, William Parkin was fined 40 shillings (£2) by the Company of Cutlers for striking a mark similar to Patten’s (Leader, 1905-6, ii¹).   In 1774 and 1787, George Patten was listed in Coalpit Lane as a manufacturer of pen and pocket knives and ‘jacks’.   A Patten speciality was folding knives with brass scales stamped with various designs (Moore, 1999²).  These were often copied from French patterns (indeed, Patten had registered ‘PATEN’ in Thiers, the French cutlery centre).   George Patten apparently died in 1791 and was buried at the parish church.  

The mark passed to George’s son, George William (bapt.12 December 1766), who was granted his Freedom in 1791.  He manufactured pen and pocket knives in Coalpit Lane until the mid-1820s.  Henceforth, the Patten workshop was occupied by John Hall.  George William died ‘suddenly’ on 8 July 1827.  His executor was his sister, Hannah (bapt.7 December 1768).   Although she was not apparently involved in cutlery, when she died on 1 July 1845 she left a dwelling house in Coalpit Lane and a warehouse and workshops extending to Carver Street (Sheffield Independent, 6 September 1845).

Another Hannah Patten was listed as a pen knife cutler in 1774 in Silver Street (trade mark ‘NANTZ’ with a Maltese Cross).  In later directories (1787, 1797), the enterprise was Hannah Patten & Son.   The son may have been William, who registered a silver mark from Silver Street in 1780 and was granted his Freedom in 1783.   Hannah Patten, though, is difficult to identify.   Possibly she had links with John Patten, who was granted his Freedom in 1734 and may have been the brother of the George, who died in 1791.   If John had once been married to Hannah, that would explain the later appearance of ‘Hannah Patten & Son’.  John is known to have had a son, William (1758-1833?).

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

^2. Moore, Simon, Cutlery for the Table: A History of British Table and Pocket Cutlery (Sheffield, 1999)