Samuel Burgin Swift (1813-1878) was born in Sheffield, the son of William (‘Billy’) Swift and his wife Mary.  He married Annis née Neal (1814-1878).  The Swifts were skilled cutlers.  In the Census, Samuel was usually described as a spring-knife cutler; though in 1871, he was enumerated as a table knife cutler.  When 64-year-old Samuel died on 12 October 1878 at his home in Victoria Road, Heeley (leaving under £200), a leading trade journal described him as ‘a noble example of an English artisan’:

The deceased was a most ingenious workman and had been in the service of Joseph Rodgers & Sons for 40 years.  He was a thoughtful, industrious workman, and inherited the skill of his father, ‘Billy Swift’.  For many years the deceased had been a ‘day’ worker, contrary to the usual practice of piece working in the cutlery trades.  Almost all manner of curious articles taken to the show-rooms of Rodgers & Sons to be repaired were transferred to Swift, whose ingenuity was seldom overreached.  He possessed tools (many of his own making) sufficient to have stocked the ‘Old Curiosity Shop.’ Working in steel, silver, gold, or pearl, came to him most readily.  He was indeed, in scriptural phrase, a ‘cunning workman,’ and it is such men as he who have built up and sustained the reputation of Sheffield.  To the young workman Swift was ever ready to give the benefit of his great experience.  It was no uncommon thing for workmen in mechanical or other working emergencies to be advised to ‘ask Sam Swift,’ as his more familiar friends usually called him.  He was a genial, kind-hearted man, whose days were spent in the workshop, and his leisure hours cultivating his little freehold, in which for many years, he took a laudable pride (‘Death of a Noted Workman’, obituary notice reprinted from Ironmonger, courtesy Richard Bell).

His sons – George, Arthur, and Fred – also joined Joseph Rodgers & Sons.  Descendant Richard Bell (2013) calculated that by 1911 the trio had accrued 164 years of service.  They can be identified in a group photograph of Rodgers’ workers (see chapter 4), which was published in Rodgers’ house history, Under Five Sovereigns (1911).  George is third from the right on the front row; in the back row are Arthur (fourth from the right in the apron) and Fred (second from the right).