« Reply #16 on: Wednesday 24 April 24 23:24 BST (UK) »
One thing about having a trade in those days was that the parents/guardians paid for a seven year apprenticeship.
In that time-frame, parents still used a naming pattern for their children . If one boys name doesn't "fit in" it could be that it was to reflect the name of the man who gave him an apprenticeship.
In the early days a manufacturing factory with furnaces was usually situated near a coal mine. Quite often other metal ores would also be found near the coal mines. I also used to work in the engineering trade and know that steel castings took six weeks from start of pouring into its mould to finish when cold and iron castings took three weeks from start to finish.
You might be lucky and find that your "Howard2 could lead you to a "gateway" ancestor, taking you back to Tudor times. Have a look at this GENUKI page:-
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Sheffield/SheffieldHistory
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke