Thomas Boulsover

Fletcher was a Presbyterian and the young Boulsover would have been brought up with the same religious views as it was expected that an apprentice would join his master and family in their manner of worship.

[1] Thomas Boulsover needed financial assistance to set up a business in fused plate and it came from Mr Strelley Pegge of Beauchief Hall who loaned him the necessary capital.

[3][4] Thomas Boulsover repaid the money loaned from Strelley Pegge and continued his enterprise with the help of two apprentices, also hiring John Hoyland as an agent to promote the sale of his buttons.

In 1757 he moved his business to larger premises on Norfolk Street (now the location of the Crucible Theatre stage door), in the same year he bought Whiteley Wood Hall from his initial patron Strelley Pegge.

Now a member of the gentry, Boulsover's guidance as a leading townsman was eagerly sought; he became involved in discussions on the Sheffield to Leeds turnpike road and became one of the original trustees.

In 1774, Boulsover & Co. – based at Whiteley Woods and Norfolk Street – was described as “makers of saws, fenders, edge tools, cast steel and emory”.

Early in 1789, Boulsover's two surviving children – Mary Mitchell and Sarah Hutton – built a small Methodist chapel near to Whiteley Wood Hall in memory of their father.

It has an plaque which reads “This chapel was built by Mary Mitchell and Sarah Hutton in 1789 in memory of their father Thomas Boulsover the inventor of Sheffield Plate (1705–1788).