By the eighteenth century, the ‘Barlows’ of Barlow knife fame (see Obadiah Barlow) had apparently extended the family network to Neepsend – then described as ‘near Sheffield’.  (However, some have doubted whether the Barlows in Neepsend were directly related to the Campo Lane Barlows.  See Sheffield Independent, 23 January 1875).  The Company of Cutlers registered two Freedoms (one in 1723, the other in 1753) to cutlers named Samuel Barlow.  The first was to Samuel Barlow, the son of John Barlow (deceased), who was apprenticed to cutler John Levick, who lived in the adjacent district of Bridgehouses.  Directories of 1774, 1787, and 1797 listed Samuel Barlow, pen and pocket knife maker, in Neepsend.  By the end of the century, Samuel had acquired property, gardens, and houses (Smith, 2001¹).  The business was apparently continued by Samuel’s son, John, who was listed between 1816 and 1822, and whose life dates may have been c.1775-1828.  

John’s son, another Samuel (born 7 November 1801), was listed after 1825 as a stag and buck [handled] pen and pocket knife manufacturer in Neepsend.   After apprenticeship to his father, Samuel was granted his Freedom and assigned the Barlow mark (Z and a falchion, granted 1725) in 1830.  He was enumerated in the 1841 Census as a 40 year-old cutler, living in Neepsend.  He had a 17-year-old apprentice, Walter Ellis, and also living at the address was a 33-year-old cutler, Henry Mills.  The latter had married Samuel’s sister, Mary.   Samuel defended the Barlow mark against a competitor and former worker, Joseph Garrett.  Mills acquired Samuel’s business during the 1840s.   The Barlow mark was bequeathed to Mills in 1851 under the terms of Samuel’s will.   No obituary or burial has been traced for Samuel, but he may have died in 1850.  

^1. Smith, D J, ‘The Old Original Barlow Knives’,  South Yorkshire Industrial History Society Journal, No 2 (2001)