These, according to the wise
rule of settling all one craft in one spot, were by the advice of the Queen's
Chamberlain, the Earl of Shrewsbury, settled on his own estate at Sheffield,
and the neighbourhood thenceforward became known for the manufacture of
shears, sickles, knives of every kind, and scissors.
About this time (1613), according to a survey, Sheffield contained about 2207
inhabitants, of whom the most wealthy were "100 householders, which relieve
the others, but are poore artificers, not one of whom can keep a team on his
own land, and above ten have grounds of their own, which will keep a cow." In
1624, an act of the incorporation of cutlers was passed, entituled "An act
for the good order and government of the makers of sickles, shears, scissors,
and other cutlery wares in Hallamshire and parts near adjoining."
Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, the last of the male line of the house
of Talbot, who inherited the Hallamshire estates, died on the 8th May 1616,
leaving three daughters, co-heiresses. The Lady Alethea Talbot, the
youngest, married the Earl of Arundel, and the other two, dying without issue
in 1654, the whole estates descended to her grandson, Thomas Howard, Earl of
Arundel, who was restored to the title of Duke of Norfolk by Charles II.
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