Born in Sheffield in 1821, Thomas Royle was the son of John Royle (1796-1871) and his wife, Elizabeth (c.1802-1871).  His father was a silver plater, who was listed in Ecclesall New Road in 1833 and in Eldon Street in 1841.  The Royles lived and worked in Radford Place by 1851, when Thomas registered a silver mark (‘T R’) from Union Works, Union Lane.  He made silver fruit knives.  After moving to Neepsend Lane during the 1850s and 1860s, he combined this with inn keeping (and was also briefly a leather dealer in Gibraltar Street).  He was the landlord at the Woolpack Inn, Neepsend Lane, and in 1865 claimed £145 damages after the Sheffield Flood.  The claim, which was settled for £35, included £5 for the loss of his fruit-knife tools.

Thomas Royle’s father and mother died in Monmouth Street in July 1871:  John Royle on 11 July 1871 (aged 74) after a ‘long and painful affliction’; Eliza, ‘very suddenly’, on 30 July 1871 (aged 69).  John left under £100.  They were buried in a family grave in the General Cemetery.  Thomas’s wife, Elizabeth, died from valvular heart disease on 10 October 1875, aged 48, and was buried in an unconsecrated grave in the Cemetery.  Thomas became involved in a dispute (settled in his favour) with a doctor about the cost of his wife’s death certificate (Sheffield Independent, 26 July 1878).  As a widower, Thomas returned to his job as a journeyman silver fruit knife maker until he became a pensioner at Shrewsbury Hospital, Sheffield.  He died there on 11 December 1903, aged 83, and was buried alongside the remains of his parents in the General Cemetery.