Jackson and Sankey
The Birch brothers had a business in Bilston making tinplate trays which were then japanned.
After the failure of this business, two of the senior workmen, Charles Harthill, and Samuel Jackson, set up their own firm in Middlefield Lane, and employed Joseph Sankey.
1854 Charles Harthill died, when the firm owed £800 to John Bates, a sheet iron merchant. Bates secured possession of the plant and tools of the firm as security for the debt. He recognised Sankey's skills and determination and persuaded Jackson to take him into partnership in 1854. This partnership concentrated on production of blank trays stamped from tinplate and then sold to japanners.
1861 The partnership was dissolved and Sankey took over sole control but Jackson continued to work for the firm as a foreman in the blank tray shop. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned Samuel Jackson and Joseph Sankey, carrying on the trade or business of Blank Tray Manufacturers, at Bilston, in the county of Stafford, under the style or firm of Jackson and Sankey, was dissolved by mutual consent on the 24th day of June last. And notice is hereby further given, that all debts due to and from the said late copartnership will be received and paid by the said Joseph Sankey, by whom the said trade or business will in future be carried on...'[1]