Thomas Boulsover (1705 – 9 September 1788), was a Sheffield cutler who is best remembered as the inventor of Sheffield Plate. He made his fortune manufacturing various items, but especially buttons using the process, he later diversified into making cast steel and saws. Early years and apprenticeship Boulsover was born in Longley, which was then a remote hamlet between the town of Sheffield and the village of Ecclesfield, He was the son of Samuel Boulsover, a farmer and cutler and Margaret Brownell of Hathersage, being baptised at Ecclesfield church on 18 October 1705. He began his apprenticeship to learn the trade of cutler in 1718, being apprenticed to Joseph Fletcher, a native of Wirksworth in Derbyshire who had established himself as a cutler in Sheffield. 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. Thomas Boulsover's apprenticeship was completed in 1726 and he was granted the freedom of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire on 26 November of that year, the act being recorded in the Freedoms Book at the Cutlers' Hall. As was traditional Boulsover was also awarded his own trademark and this was registered in the Mark Book. Cutler Boulsover chose to practice as a free cutler in the developing township of Sheffield and on 28 October 1728 he married Hannah Dodworth of Owlerton at Sheffield parish church, they set up home in the Norfolk Street area where groups of cutlers were settling in newly built properties. The Boulsovers' first child Sarah was born in June 1729 but the infant soon died; the Boulsovers had ten children throughout their marriage of which only two survived to adulthood. Thomas Boulsover continued as a cutler, with several apprentices working for him over the years; in the early 1740s he moved his business to new premises on Sycamore Hill (now Tudor Street) the workshop being on the corner of Tudor Street and Surrey Street opposite the present day Sheffield Central Library. Sheffield plate In early 1743 Boulsover made the accidental discovery which was to change his life and have an immense effect on the success and development of Sheffield. While repairing the decorative handle of a knife made from copper and silver he accidentally slightly overheated the handle causing the two metals to fuse.