The following page displays the Staniforth maker marks that were used over various time periods, many companies were founded by Staniforth family members, starting with with John Stanyford in 1564, this page will be updated as more marks are discovered.

In 1564/5 The Roll of Court with view of Frank Pledge, recorsd that a group of 18 people came to the Court and took of the Lord their own Marks for use on their blades, amongst them was John Stanyford, the first Staniforth to get a mark. He was a grinder of Sickles and it very likely the John Stanyford that died in Eckington Parish, at Ridgeway in 1597.

Staniforth, Parkin & Co (Including earlier partnerships with Joseph Shemeld)

This stamp was entered in July 1777 followed the creation of a new partnership from March 1776 between Joseph Shemeld, Jonathan Parkin, Jonathan Hague and John Staniforth. The partners, all described as merchants, were to trade as factors and cutlers, and the only output of silver noted are blades and handles. The partnership ran its full term of fourteen years to 1st March 1790 when Joseph Shemeld retired and his son, James Shemeld, and Edward Oakes took his quarter interest equally. Oakes had been a partner in Fenton, Creswick, Oakes & Co. until its dissolution on 24th December 1789. Following internal disputes Oakes withdrew, selling his interest to James Shemeld who entered into a further seven year partnership equally with Parkin, Staniforth and Hague from March 1792.

This was entered in 1781 by Shemeld, Parkin & Co., who were to submit handles and sets of furniture (probably for knife cases), may have related to the foregoing concern, but as they were, in 1781, four years into a stable partnership which had already entered a mark, it seems unlikely. It is more likely that it was in fact the mark of a separate partnership, very probably the predecessor to the firm of Staniforth, Parkin & Co. whose mark

This was registered in 1783 by John Staniforth, Jonathan Parkin & Co. The composition of later partnerships suggests that Joseph Shemeld may well have been one of the company. A successor to the partnership was described as merchants and manufacturers of hardware, a distinction of trade which no doubt enabled the involvement of some of the partners of Shemeld & Co.; the output appears to have been restricted to handles. That there were strong links between the two firms is indicated by the personnel of successive partnerships and by the location of both concerns in Arundel Street. By 1788 the firm, known as Staniforth, Parkin, Hague & Shemeld, consisted of James Staniforth, Jonathan Parkin, Jonathan Hague and Joseph Shemeld and was trading from Parkin's premises in Arundel Street. They were succeeded in 1788 by Shemeld, Parkin, Oakes & Co, a partnership for fourteen years between James Shemeld, Jonathan Parkin, Edward Oakes and Joseph Shemeld, in the same premises. Provision was made for Parkin to assign his interest to Thomas Bradshaw Hoole on his attaining the age of twentyone, when the style of the firm would become Shemeld, Oakes & Hoole. It is not known whether Hoole joined the firm; he died in 1799 aged 26.

Thomas Staniforth & Co, Hackenthorpe

We have a full article on Thomas Staniforth & Co marks which can be read here.









Other Families linked to Staniforths:

John Trevers Younge (Wife of Elizabeth Staniforth of Darnall Hall)

This was entered by John Hoyland, one of the first Guardians, John Trevers Younge, Thomas Smith and Elizabeth Middleton. The latter no doubt having taken the share of her late husband, William Middleton, toyman, who died in 1768. John Hoyland was a party to the executrix's bond relating to his estate and was described then as a button maker. Hirst tells us that Hoyland learnt the trade whilst employed as traveller to Thomas Boulsover, the inventor of the Sheffield Plating process in 1742. With that experience Hoyland went into business on his own account, later taking John Trevers Younge, Edmund Greaves and William Middleton into partnership. The mark is noted in use down to 1778 and probably ceased in 1779 with the death of John Hoyland. In his will of that year he left £10 among the servants employed "in the business I carry on with my friends John Younge and Edmund Greaves", and stipulated that the stock in trade in the partnership was to be continued until the next settling of the partnership accounts. The successors to the business were John Trevers Younge, Edmund Greaves and William Hoyland who registered four marks in April 1779

William Hoyland, the new partner, was John Hoyland's eldest son. His other son, John junior was also a silversmith and, like his father, a Quaker. The partnership was dissolved in May 1787 with Younge continuing the firm as J T Younge & C. in partnership with John Allanson, Henry Walker and William Crowder. The mark

being entered on 1st August 1788. All the partnerships to that time had produced a full range of silver wares from tea tongs to candlesticks. Allanson left the firm in 1796 and may later have been a partner in the firm of Fenton, Allanson & Machon which registered a mark in 1816. Following his departure two further marks were entered in December 1797

By 1802 Younge's two sons, Samuel and Charles, had joined the partnership and in that year William Crowder withdrew. James Gregory is noted as a partner at the time of the partnership dissolution in 1810. No new marks are noted in this period. It is possible that Gregory had previously been in partnership with John Staniforth as James Gregory & Co.; if so it may be that he joined J T Younge & Co. in 1804, the same year in which John Staniforth registered a mark on his own account. A new eleven year partnership agreement was entered into on 18th August 1810 the partners being Samuel Younge, Charles Younge and George Kitchen of Sheffield and Henry Walker of London, noting that the trade would be conducted in Sheffield and London. They registered a new mark

Registered July 1811. Nothing further is known of the partnership but the mark continued in use down to 1828.