The Hukin Family

by Jonathan Nicholas

Jane Maria Hukin

The Hukins were Dutch and William Hukin who had come to England married in 1805. There were eleven children, nine boys and two girls, Alfred 1805, Ann 1807 (see sampler), William 1809, Jonathan 1811, Jane Maria 1813 (above: who was my great great grandmother), Joseph 1815, George 1816, James 1819, John 1822, Thomas 1824, and Robert 1828.

Ann Hukin's Sampler, 1816

Pictured below is Juliana Hukin. My Grannie knew her as Aunt Hukin. She was born Juliana Chivers and she was from another Dutch family. The Hukins were razor grinders and Billy Hukin was the last razor grinder to ply his trade in Sheffield. He lived next door but one to Cousin Jean in Eastgrove Road and he died in 1995 at the age of 89. There is a video of him explaining his work as a razor grinder at the industrial museum at Kelham Island in Sheffield. Jean was also good friends with his sister Norah Hukin.

Juliana Hukin

Billy was the nephew of George Hukin, who was a razor grinder like the rest of his family. George is pictured below during the 1880s with the man who was his lover, Edward Carpenter at Millthorpe. Both men politically were radical. George saw socialism as the way forward that would make a difference to ordinary people’s lives. He died comparatively young in 1917 of grinder’s lung.

George Hukin and Edward Carpenter

The picture below shows some razor grinders at work. They could put greater pressure onto the razors if they could use the whole of their body weight from above by lying on a board on top of the grinding wheels. This is the origin of the expression “put your nose to the grindstone” and each man had a dog lying on top of him to keep him warm, whereas a blanket would have very likely got caught around the grinding wheels, but did the razor grinders bring along their own dogs or was each man supplied with a dog at work?

Footnote

George Edward Hukin (1860-1917), pictured above with Edward Carpenter, is descended from five generations of Sheffield-born ancestors dating back to the basketmaker, Joshua Hukin (1743-1816) and his wife Hannah Glossop (1742-1813).

Earlier ancestry remains unproven as the mother's name was not recorded in the parish registers against the birth. Nevertheless, it is known that there were Hukins living in Sheffield and north west Derbyshire from at least the early 17th century.

From our own research (see below) it would seem that Jonathan Nicholas and George Edward Hukin are third cousins, twice removed. Jonathan is descended through Joshua Hukin's son William, and George Edward through another son Luke.