882 



SHEFFIELD 



the Wesley College (1838). The Firth College, 

 founded in 1879 by Mark Firth ( Mayor 1875), was 

 incorporated in 1897 as University College, with 

 arts, technical, and medical dejiartnients. The 

 Mechanic!)' Institution dates from 1832. There are 

 free and other public libraries, an Athemi/um, and 

 a Literary and Philosophical Society; and, amongst 

 charities, an infirmary and several hospitals. Shef- 

 field has long been noted for the manufacture of 

 Cutlery ( q. v. ); and at the present day an endless 

 variety of articles in brass, iron, ami steel is pro- 

 duced at the many manufactories with which the 

 town alxmmls, such as knives of every description, 

 silver and plated articles, Britannia-metal goods, 

 files, saws, &c. The introduction of the manu- 

 facture of armour-plates, railway-springs, tires, and 

 rails, since 1871, has given a remarkable impetus 

 to the growth of the town. Sheffield has several 

 public parks, including the Firth Park, presented 

 by Mr Firth, opened in 1875, and the Norfolk Park, 

 given by the Duke of Norfolk ( Mayor ), opened 

 in 1897, and two sets of public baths. Mr Ruskin 

 founded the St George's Museum here (formerly at 

 Walkley, but since 1890 in the town itself), in which 

 he deposited an important collection of minerals, 

 illuminated manuscripts, engravings, and drawings. 

 Mr J. Newton Mappin bequeathed to the town a 

 collection of pictures, and Sir F. T. Mappin, Bart., 

 M.P., his nephew, has since added largely to the 

 collection. The Mappin Art Gallery was erected 

 by the executors of Mr J. N. Mappin at a cost of 

 'l.->,000. Pop. (1821) 69,479; (1841) 111,091; 

 ( 1861 ) 154,093 ; ( 1881 ) 284,508 ; ( 1891 ) 324,243. 



Situated on the extreme southern border of York- 

 shire, Sheffield has from Saxon times been the 

 capital of a district known as ' Hallamshire,' 

 which is composed of five contiguous parishes, and 

 formed the manor of Earl Waitheof, who married 

 the Countess Judith, the Conqueror's niece. A 

 Norman family, who seem to nave sprung from 

 Lovetot, a small hamlet in Normandy near Fon- 

 tenelle, became the resident proprietors of Sheffield 

 and the adjacent parishes ; and William de Lovetot 

 founded a monastery at Worksop in 1103, and 

 built a church at Sheffield. This family estab- 

 lished a market, a hospital for the sick, a mill for 

 grinding corn, and a bridge over the Don during 

 their brief reign in Sheffield. The property de- 

 scended to a female heir, whose hand was given 

 in marriage by King Richard I. to Gerald Furnival, 

 who had fought with his king at Acre. The Fur- 

 nivals took the side of Henry HI. in his contests 

 with the insurgent barons, during which an expe- 

 dition was formed against the town and castle 

 of Sheffield, when many of the inhabitants were 

 slaughtered, and the castle was burned in 1206. 

 Four years after this disaster Thomas de Furnival 

 rebuilt the castle. His son, of the same name, 

 was the great benefactor to this town. Though 

 much employed as a soldier against the Scots, he 

 enfranchised his vassals, and gave them a court of 

 justice and trial by jury. His grandson took part 

 in the battle of Crecy ; and his brother, who 

 succeeded him, left an only daughter, who married 

 Sir Thomas Nevil. This pair again left an only 

 daughter, who married the great hero, John 

 Talbot, first Earl of Shrewsbury, familiar from 

 Shakespeare's Henry VI. 



During the wars betwixt the rival Houses of 

 York and Lancaster the Shrewsbury family sided 

 with the latter, and the second earl fell in the 

 lint I le of Northampton fight ing for the king. His 

 son and successor was again in arms in the same 

 cause, but died young, and left a son, who was 

 only five yean old when he succeeded to the title 

 ami property, which he held for seventy years. 

 Thi" earl made Sheffield Castle a more permanent 

 place of residence than his predecessor nad done. 



It was a spacious fortified building which covered 

 four acres of ground, and fourteen acres of pleasure- 

 grounds were attached, and stood at the northern 

 entrance to the town betwixt the riveis Sheaf and 

 1'iin. In the early part of the reign of Henry 

 \ III. the earl bunt a more homelike residence 

 about two miles from the town, in which \Volsey 

 rested for eighteen days on his last journey (1530), 

 and the utter ruins of which still bear the name ..t" 

 ' Sheffield Manour.' 



The earls of Shrewsbury were amongst the 

 very chief of the nobility of England, and the 

 sumptuousness of living which they maintained, 

 lit li at the castle and manonr, was second only 

 to that of royalty it-elf. Queen Elizabeth im- 

 posed on George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, 

 the odious responsibility of holding l/uecn Mary 

 of Scotland a prisoner in his castle at Sheffield ; 

 and this lasted, with only few and short changes 

 of abode, during the long period of fourteen years 

 (1572-86). 



The seventh Earl of Shrewsbury left three 

 daughters, of whom only the youngest, whose 

 husband was Thomas, Earl of Arundel, had a child. 

 Through this son the vast estates connected with 

 the Sheffield property l>ecame henceforth vested 

 in a line of descendants which has made the 

 Dukes of Norfolk owners and lords of Hallam- 

 shire. Lord Arundel was non-resident, living much 

 abroad, and the prosperity of Sheffield deteriorated 

 greatly owing to the withdrawal from the local 

 markets of all such custom as two grand mansions 

 had hitherto afforded. Whilst the noble family 

 maintained their loyal sentiments towards the king 

 in the national contest, the townspeople t<x>k the 

 |H>pular side. In August 1644 the castle was 

 besieged and taken by tin- parliamentary army, 

 and soon afterwards a resolution was passed by 

 the government that it should be 'sleighted and 

 demolished.' 



Sheffield henceforth liecame dejiendent upon it* 

 cutlery trade. This, as the special business of the 

 town, had existed from the earliest limes. The 

 Sheffield whittle ' spoken of by Chaucer in the 

 14th century was the common knife used for all 

 purposes by those whose social rank did not entitle 

 them to carry a sword. It was only the commonest 

 cutlery that was manufactured in the town, and 

 neither swords nor daggers nor the more modern 

 bayonet were ever made here. The Cutlers' Com- 

 pany, which has now a national reputation, was 

 founded in 1624, and the cutlers' annual feast may 

 date from about that time, having originated in 

 the permission granted by Earl Gill>ert to the 

 'apron men,' or working smiths, to pull down as 

 many deer as they could kill in the park and carry 

 away with their hands. Up to the middle of the 

 18th century Sheffield was a mean place, and the 

 cutler was a poor man ; the income of 100 a year 

 was accounted as riches. But in a century from 

 that time, with railway approaches, the use of the 

 steam-engine, machinery of every sort, and a 

 variety of processes for the manufacture of steel, 

 Sin '(field had risen into the position of being the 

 ' capital of steel ' in Britain, and perhaps in the 

 world ; it was the first place at which the armour- 

 plates to protect British war ships were rolled, 

 and here too are cast the steel blocks whfeh are 

 subsequently bored and rifled for the artillery of 

 both services. 



Till 1845 the whole town was included in one 

 parish, having a single ancient church, with five 

 modern churches that were merely chapels of ease. 

 There are now thirty-seven ecclesiastical parishes, 

 with their churches and clergy. The various Non- 

 conformist bodies, too, have rapidly increased with 

 the growth of population. The old dissent com- 

 menced with the ejection of the Presbyterian 



