Thread: Dunsford? Id help, please

Hoo boy, this is a fun one. It's several cans of worms all rolled into one!

First of all, the Dunsford name, like Science Guy says, is from the South West of England. That's about the simplest part of the whole thing.

There seem to have been roughly a million of them, but the two most promising Dunsfords are both named Jabez.

The first Jabez Dunsford, cutler, had a big workshop in Exeter in the late 1700's. We know this because after he died in 1797, his sons (or nephews, or brothers) rented it out. William Dunsford was then making surgical instruments and was a cutler too, or so says the classified rental listing.

William's successor was R. Dunsford, doing pretty much the same thing (surgical instruments, trusses, etc).

But there was another Jabez in Exeter circa 1805 or so, and he moved to Plymouth, where he ran this ad:



(this ad is old enough that it's still using the archaic long-s, which happens to look almost exactly like a lower-case 'f'.)

That translates to:

CUTLERY MANUFACTORY, PLYMOTH.
J. DUNSFORD, cutler, surgeons' instrument and truss-maker, (late of Exeter,){meaning he just moved from there} respectfully begs leave to acquaint the nobility, gentry, his friends, and the public in general, that he is removed to his new shop, in the broad street, opposite How's-ian{???}, where he solicits their orders, and hopes, by punctuality, a strict attention to business, and by selling articles of the best workmanship, to merit that patronage with which he may be supported.

He manufactures table and desert knives and forks, with silver, pearl, ivory, and horn handles; sportsmen's pocket, and penknives; polished and studded scissars; warranted razors of superior temper; and a variety of other articles in the country line, too numerous for insertion.

(Let's leave off the potential readings of that last clause, yes?)

The key thing there is that it's an ad for a Dunsford selling razors specifically.

In my opinion, your razor was most likely made by the OTHER Jabez Dunsford, since the later one seems to have not had the greatest luck in the world -- he had multiple bankruptcies, lost a wife and seems to have died destitute.

But just because that's not really complicated enough, there was another, later Dunsford making surgical instruments and trusses who specifically advertised that he was in no way related to ALL THOSE OTHER Dunsfords, including the Dunsford who invented the Dunsford Truss, which was apparently A Thing.