The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire

The Master Cutler

The Master Cutler's room in the Cutlers' Hall

The Master Cutler is formally elected from the Company on the first Monday in September. His term of office is one year and nowadays the Master is installed on the first Tuesday in October. The Company must consist of 33 Members by statute, who are also Freemen, and they are made up of a Master, two Wardens, six Searchers and twenty-four Assistants. All other qualified Freemen of the Company, currently numbering 447, are known as the Commonalty. The first Master Cutler in 1624 was the cutler, Robert Sorsbie or Sorsby, who came from a well-established local family. Four other Masters Cutler in the 17th century were called Sorsby. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Masters Cutler were involved in the manufacture of one or more of the goods defined in the early Act and later bye-laws, the majority being cutlers - the makers of knives. At the beginning of the 19th century, the edge-tool trade, which was excluded from the Company, was becoming increasingly important and with the development of bulk steel-making in the mid-19th century, the Company amended its rules to include these trades. In 1863, Thomas Jessop was the first steel manufacturer to become Master Cutler and for a time, hardly any cutlers became Masters Cutler. For a few years at the end of the 19th century, the traditional trades were again represented, but for most of the twentieth century, Masters have generally been from the steel, engineering and edge-tool industries. Throughout his year of office, each Master Cutler seeks to champion the manufacturing industries of Hallamshire, both locally and nationally.