User:Clokemg/Thomas Gill

Thomas Gill, (born 1744 died 1801), Leading sword cutler from Birmingham, UK.

The first evidence we have of the Gill family in Birmingham, England is an advertisement in the Aris Gazette dated 28 November 1748. This advertisement refers to one Thomas Gill who had recently arrived from Liverpool and set up shop near the Golden Ball at the upper end of Moor Street. His trade was the manufacture of files for use in the clock and watch trade. Mr Gill died soon after arriving in Birmingham and his business was carried on under the name of his son born around 1744 who was also named Thomas and is the subject of this article.

Thomas Gill was involved in producing a very wide range of products and many entries appear in the Board of Ordnance records listing the provision of miscellaneous ironmongery. It appears that Thomas ( became very successful and employed many workers in his Birmingham premises.  As well as making many steel tools, files, saws and ironmongery, around 1778 he also started the manufacture of sword blades that was to dominate the family business.  In the year 1779 a petition was presented to the Board of Ordnance to supply them with German swords because English ones were inferior.  Mr. Gill’s swords were presented and shown ‘to the entire satisfaction and conviction of the Hon. Board that Mr Gill’s were equal in goodness to any foreign swords’.

In about 1783 Thomas Gill (II) embarked on a campaign that was to occupy him for the remainder of his life. This being to improve the reputation of sword blades produced in Britain and Birmingham in particular.

To encourage the production of sword blades in England, in 1685 in the reign of James II, an act of parliament had been passed to prevent the importation of foreign blades. Although the founding of a successful internal manufacturing base had not met with any great success, the duty imposed by the act nevertheless remained. By the 1780’s the treasury was receiving requests to import swords duty free due to the inferior quality of English swords. In 1783 Thomas Gill became aware of these requests and, no doubt fearful to the threat to his business, sent a letter to the Treasury informing them that his swords were as good as those from Germany and praying that a test could be performed comparing his blades to those of foreign manufacture. No action was undertaken by the Royal Ordnance. Thomas, however, was not content to idly sit back and wait and pressed on with his campaign to have tests undertaken. In 1786 the East India Company placed an order with various suppliers for a total of 10,000 horsemen’s swords. Thomas Gill was vocal in calling for comparative tests being performed. In October 1786 the first tests were performed.

Resources

 * Swords for Sea Service by May & Annis