Thread: Bengall's Band of Brothers

The Cadman family were a farming family from Derbyshire, eventually settling in Eckington, a village to the south of Sheffield. In the eighteenth century the family became involved in the cutlery business. Luke Cadman (1727-1788) moved to Sheffield in 1740, becoming apprenticed into the cutlery trade. He became a freeman of the Cutlers' Company of Hallamsire (the trade guild of the Sheffield cutlery industry) in 1748 and was granted the trademark "BENGALL". Another branch of the family were also razorsmiths and had the trademark "SENEGALL".
Luke Cadman was married in 1753, to Nancy Matthews. They had several children and two of their sons joined the family business - Luke Jr. (1754-1816) and Peter (1764-1817).
The business was located initially on Fargate, then Surrey Street and Carver Street.
Peter Cadman was married in 1793 to Hannah Staniland. Their family was the line which ran the business during the nineteenth century. Peter and Hannah Cadman's second son, Alfred (born 1802), ran the business in the 1830s and 1840s, located at Broomhall Street, then at Monmouth Street.
Thomas Radley Cadman (1833-1917) took over the business in the early 1870s, which by then was located in St. Mary's Road. By the outbreak of the Great War, T.R.Cadman's great grandson, Edwin Cadman, was in charge.
By 1933, the company had diversified from its traditional open razors into safety razors and pocket knives. In 1938 the business moved again, to Matilda Lane.
The company ceased trading in 1965.