John Westby was born in Sheffield in 1857, the son of William Westby and his wife, Ann. His father was a manager and later partner at Brookes & Crookes. His brother was Joseph Westby.  John was already being trained as a cutler by 1871, when he was aged 13, and later became warehouseman and manager at Atlantic Works. By 1895 – when he advertised in the Foreign Buyers’ Catalogue – John Westby had started his own business. John Westby & Co, Cambridge Street, offered a similar range of pocket and sportsman’s knives to Brookes & Crookes, where Westby stated that he had worked for twenty years. By 1901, it appears that the venture had ceased trading and Westby was again a cutlery manager. He apparently died in 1903, aged 46, and was buried at Walkley Cemetery on 26 June.