Stephen Fox (b. 1691) was a Sheffield cutler and razor maker.  His daughter, Catherine, in 1739 married Sheffield razor smith, Matthew Norris (c.1718-1761).  One of their sons, Samuel Norris (1745-1817), was nephew to John Fox (1714-1793) and apparently became partner in the latter’s razor business.  Fox & Norris was listed in 1774 as a manufacturer of razors, jack-knives, and pocket knives, in Westbar.   The partners used the marks ‘*P’, registered to John Fox in 1735; ‘+ROME’, which belonged to Stephen Fox, Freeman 1736; and ‘MATAS’, belonging to Samuel Norris, F 1767.  (William Fox at Westbar may have been a relative.)  

Samuel Norris inherited the business on John Fox’s death.  ‘Sammy’ Norris had a large house and workshops on Westbar.  He was Master Cutler in 1777.   Leader’s Reminiscences  (1876)¹ described the family’s history as ‘a sad one’.   Samuel had a large family, but many died in infancy.  Two sons, John (1780-1826) and Thomas (1782-1816), joined the firm and traded with Germany.   However, Thomas’s trip to Leipzig in about 1808 ended badly.  He lost a large stock of goods when the French army invaded, which pushed his father into bankruptcy.  Samuel relied upon the charity of the Company of Cutlers and died on 16 July 1817, aged 71, at Shrewsbury Hospital.  He was buried at St Peter & St Paul.  According to Leader, John lived on in genteel poverty.  He died at Hillfoot and was buried at Ecclesfield.  Thomas joined the Church and died on 6 October 1816 in Chelsea, London.  Ironically, the trade marks were acquired by John Henry Harder – a German, whom Thomas had brought to England as a clerk.  Harder died on 11 January 1856. His tomb is at St Nicholas', Bradfield.

^1. Leader, Robert E, Reminiscences of Old Sheffield (Sheffield, 2nd edn 1876)