A manufacturer of electro-plated spoons, forks, and fish carvers, Fee & Swift was launched in 1863 at Union Works, New Edward Street. One partner was John Fee, who had been born in about 1828 (apparently in Dublin). In the Census (1841), he was described as a 14 year-old ‘silversmith’, living in Whitecroft. According to an advertisement in 1868, he had worked ‘upwards of twenty years’ for Martin, Hall. The other partner was Joseph Lentall Swift, who had been born in about 1829 in Brampton, Derbyshire, near Chesterfield. By 1868, the business was located in Sycamore Street and Norfolk Street. By 1871, the partners lived at different addresses in Crescent Road. A silver mark for Fee & Smith was registered in 1873, but the partnership was dissolved in the following year.

Joseph Swift & Co took out a silver mark in 1875 in Arundel Street. John Fee was bankrupt in 1875, but five years later registered a silver mark from Norfolk Works, Eyre Street. By 1881, Joseph employed fifteen men and five women, with his son, John James, as manager. John Fee employed six men and two girls, with his nephew, John William Hawksworth, as manager.  By 1884, Fee was bankrupt (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 9 October 1884).  He died on 20 March 1897, aged 69, at Ecclesall Union (workhouse) and was buried in the General Cemetery. Swift continued trading until the late 1890s, when he retired to Southport.  He died in 1902 in Ormskirk, Lancashire.