The principals were Frederick Wilson and William Pittman Davis.  The former had been born in about 1838 in Scarborough, the son of Emanuel, a tea dealer (and later lodging house keeper), and his wife, Jane.   Frederick Wilson was apprenticed as an ironmonger and later moved to London, where by 1871 he was a ‘merchant of electro-silver hardware’.  He partnered William P. Davis (see Boardman, Glossop) in Hatton Garden, London.  He also registered a silver mark in Sheffield, where the partners operated from Hatton Works, Eyre Street.  The arrangement with Davis was dissolved in 1883.  F. Wilson & Co continued to operate in Hatton Garden and Eyre Street (after 1888 the Sheffield address was Hatton Works, Cavendish Street).  However, Wilson suffered from Bright’s disease and gout.  On 10 April 1895, he shot himself in the chest with a revolver at his Hatton Garden office.  He died later that day at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.  ‘Temporary insanity’ was the inquest verdict (Morning Post [London], 12 April 1895).  Wilson, aged 56, had lived at Spencer House, Adelaide Road, Surbiton, Surrey.   He left £7,058.  In 1909, his former firm (trading as F. Wilson & Co under W. E. Legge, of Berkeley Road, Crouch End, London) was absorbed by Travis, Wilson.