Catalogue description M M BELL AND SONS LTD

Records of M M Bell and Sons, boxmakers, of Arundel St., Sheffield

M M Bell and Sons, Sheffield, boxmakers

Records are open for consultation unless otherwise indicated

On abolition of South Yorkshire County Council on 31 March 1986, the records passed from South Yorkshire County Record Office, by agreement of the four South Yorkshire District Councils, to the custody of Sheffield Archives as lead authority

• Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire

The company was founded in 1816 by James Bell, the son of Joseph Bell, a Sheffield grocer. Bell established himself in London as a 'pocket book and book case manufacturer' but after the death of his wife in 1827 he returned to Sheffield. In 1831 he married Mary, daughter of Samuel Tompkin, and set up in business with her brother John as Bell and Tompkins as case makers. When John Tompkin retired c.1853, Bell took his son Edwin James into the firm and continued as James Bell and Son. After the death of James Bell in 1864, Edwin James Bell continued on his own until 1872 when he went into partnership with his brother-in-law John Figorski. The partnership was not a success and was liquidated in 1877. On the death of Edwin James Bell in 1880, the business was taken over by his wife Martha Mary Bell who, in 1890, took her two sons into partnership. M M Bell and Sons became a limited company in 1929

• View Record