The genealogy of this firm demonstrates the complexity of early Sheffield business networks, in an era – the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries – when partnerships (especially amongst merchants and factors) could be fluid and short-lived.  This enterprise probably originated in the 1770s, when Joseph Shemeld, Jonathan Parkin, and Jonathan Hague launched a partnership as table and pocket knife makers at Sycamore Street.  In the Sheffield directory (1774), their mark was a crossed keys and heart device.  At the start of 1781, Shemeld, Parkin & Co registered a silver mark (‘S.P & Co’) as plate workers at Arundel Street.  In 1781, the firm was listed in a directory as Shemeld, Parkin, Hague & Staniforth (after John Staniforth joined the other partners).  In 1783, John Staniforth, Jonathan Parkin & Co, registered a silver mark (‘I. S’) as a plate worker in Arundel Street.  In the following year, the principals also registered a dagger mark for silver wares as Staniforth, Parkin & Co.

In 1787, Staniforth, Parkin & Co was listed as a merchant and manufacturer of cutlery wares (such as razors and table knives) at Arundel Street; and a pen and pocket knife manufacturer at Sycamore Street.   The mark on pen and pocket knives was ‘HAGUE SHEMEL’, on razors it was ‘SHEMEL PARKIN’, and on table knives ‘PARKIN SHEMEL’ with the crossed keys and heart motif.   A fancy dessert knife and fork, made in about 1770, are illustrated in Moore (1999)¹.   The items are marked ‘SHEMEL’ and have ivory hafts overlaid with fluted silver bands and scrolled caps.  In the section of the 1787 directory headed ‘Steel Converters & Refiners’, Hague & Parkin was a steel refiner at Gibraltar; Staniforth, Parkin & Co was a converter at Sycamore Street.     

After 1787, ownership in the firm fluctuated.  Edward Oakes joined the firm, but he left in 1792, leaving as partners John Staniforth, Jonathan Parkin, Jonathan Hague, and James Shemeld.   In the early 1790s, Hague apparently developed his interest in cast steel manufacture with John Parkin.  Hague, though, withdrew in 1793.  In 1797, Staniforth, Parkin & Co was listed as a merchant at 2 Arundel Street.   The ‘PARKIN SHEMEL’ mark now included, besides the crossed keys, a cross and a bishop’s staff.   Apparently, Staniforth, Shemeld and Oakes started their own business (see Shemeld & Oakes).  John Staniforth, merchant of Norfolk Street, died on 15 March 1800. 

After Staniforth’s death, the history of the company becomes ever more complicated.  Laurence Potts and Joseph Parkin became involved in Vickers, Shaw & Co, which manufactured saws and fenders.  It had eight other partners: Francis Carr, William Loy, James Vickers.  John Shaw, William Cutler, George Sanderson, John Heaton, and Peter Dakin.  The firm was dissolved in 1804 and then apparently split into two components: manufacturing under William Loy & Co; and merchandizing under Bishop, Potts, Carr & Parkin (see Bishop, Carr & Co).  Loy died in 1808; and Bishop apparently did not long survive him.  In 1808, Bishop, Potts, Carr, Parkin & Parker was dissolved; so, too, was William Loy & Co.   Several of the partners in these firms – Laurence Potts, Joseph Parkin, William Parker, and John Wright Clough – were also involved in saw maker, Vickers, Shaw & Co.   This, too, was dissolved in 1808.

Profiling these individuals is difficult.  Laurence Potts was a merchant, who later lived at Lowfield.  The identity of Joseph Parkin is uncertain.  Was he Joseph Parkin Master Cutler? Who knows?  John Wright Clough (bapt.1778-1826), though, was the son of a linen draper.  William Parker was likely the American merchant in South Street.  In 1811, Potts, Parkin & Co was listed as a table knife manufacturer in Arundel Street.  But Laurence Potts died on Monday 14 February 1814 (his wife, Sarah, had died on the previous Thursday and their tomb in Ecclesall churchyard recorded their burial on the same day).   Their brief obituaries in The Sheffield Local Register suggest they led pious lives of ‘unsullied integrity’.  Probably they were Nonconformists.  In 1816, the style of the firm was Parkin, Parker & Clough.  It opened trade with the USA after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  Court records in America show the firm pursuing unpaid debts of £670 owed by a Maryland dealer (National Archives: Parker, Parkin & Clough v.  John E. Rigden, 1816-26).  

In 1821, Parkin, Parker, Clough & Potts was listed at 4 Arundel Street.  It was classed as a manufacturer of table knives, saws, edge tools and apparently also converted and refined steel.  The partners were Joseph Parkin, William Parker, John Wright Clough, and Lawrence Potts.  The latter was the nephew of Laurence Potts.  In 1819, John Wright Clough married Harriet Parkin (d.1835), whose father may have been Joseph Parkin.  In 1825, Parkin, Parker, Clough & Potts was listed in a directory as a merchant and manufacturer of table knives, joiner’s tools, files, converters and makers of shear steel.  The partners became involved in tilting, forging, and manufacturing steel at Philadelphia Steel Works.  However, John W. Clough died on 25 August 1826, aged 48, at his home at Pitsmoor, after ‘a long and tedious illness’ (Sheffield Independent, 2 September 1826).  William Parker and Lawrence Potts left the steel making side of the business, though John Sheldon, Bartholomew Hounsfield, and Joseph Parkin retained their interest. 

By 1828, the merchant house had become Parkin, Potts & Denton, with the addition of Joshua Denton (a trustee of John W. Clough); then after 1832, it was Potts, Baxter & Brumby.  One of the partners was William Ward Brumby (see Brumby & Middleton).  In 1839, Potts, Baxter & Brumby was dissolved and Potts, Baxter & Brown was formed by Lawrence Potts, Western Villa, Western Bank; Robert Baxter, Norton Lees; and Edward Brown, Birmingham.  The company was a hardware merchant, with the emphasis on tools (such as saws).  Lawrence Potts emigrated to Australia in 1841 to run an office.  In 1844, Baxter filed for insolvency and the business broke up.

^1. Moore, Simon, Cutlery for the Table: A History of British Table and Pocket Cutlery (Sheffield, 1999)