Thomas Boulsover, inventor of Sheffield Plate
Family connection to Thomas Boulsover is not established - not even any rumour of a connection,
other than the shared surname.
Old Sheffield Plate is a method for plating copper with silver. The production process fuses the two metals
together so that they can be worked as one metal. The process of was discovered by
Thomas Boulsover, a Sheffield cutler, in 1743.
I have gathered information on a few key dates from Thomas's life as follows:
1706 or 1705: Thomas was born in Eckington, Derbyshire.
1727: Thomas gained Freedom of the Cutlers' Company, having served his apprenticeship as a cutler in Sheffield.
1728: Thomas married Hannah Dodworth
1737: Thomas's daughter, Mary, was born at Whiteley Wood.
1743: Thomas invented silver plating.
1760: Mary married Joseph Mitchell
1789: Thomas died ("in his eighty-third year when he died")
1812: Mary Boulsover died.
Thomas initially used his fused plate to manufacture buttons and later snuff-boxes and pill boxes.
He erected a mill at Whiteley Wood and a row of cottages for his workmen and began business as a saw-maker.
Up to this time, saw-blades had been hammered by hand from an ingot, but he turned from this traditional method
to make saw steel by rolling and produced saws of greater efficiency.
Thomas was the first to give gait to saw-teeth. His processes revolutionised the saw-making industry.
Unfortunately, Thomas Boulsover was not a good businessman, with a tendency to be distracted by new projects,
so he was never very wealthy.
Others made better business from his inventions.
It was left to another Sheffield man, Joseph Hancock, to really exploit the invention of Sheffield Plate.
Hancock started manufacturing Old Sheffield Plate in about 1751.
Old Sheffield plate or fused plate has long been collected, rare pieces in good condition sometimes
selling for as much as their silver contemporaries. No pieces by Thomas Boulsover are known to survive.
Information from:
"Old Sheffield Plate", by R.A.Robertson, 1957
IGI see http://www.familysearch.org
