This manufacturer of pocket knives was active in the first decade of the nineteenth century.  A dissolution notice posted in 1808 listed the partners as Samuel Wells, Richard Beall, and John Kershaw.  Samuel Wells (bapt.1773-1818) was the son of William, a husbandman, of Totley Bents.  He was apprenticed to cutler Matthew Oates, Ecclesall, in 1786 and became a Freeman in 1799.  Samuel had married Maxwell Chershaw [Kershaw] in 1797.  Although the Wells’ partnership had been dissolved, Wells & Co was listed in 1811 as a pocket knife manufacturer at Meadow Street.  Samuel and his wife, Maxwell, had a son, John Kershaw Wells, who died in 1805.  His burial was at St Paul’s, where his father was interred on 6 January 1818, aged 44.  His widow, Maxwell, later lived at Pond Hill and ran a day school.  She died on 19 February 1844, aged 72, at her residence at Brocco Street.  Her burial was at St Paul’s.