Joseph Sims Warner was born in Bristol in about 1813, the son of Henry Warner – a merchant basket maker and Baptist preacher – and his wife Elizabeth (formerly Mrs Broadstock née Sims).  Joseph was the only child from the marriage (which was Henry’s fourth).  Joseph moved to Sheffield, where in 1832 he married Lydia née Ironside.  Joseph described himself as a joiner’s tool manufacturer.  In 1841, he was listed in a Sheffield directory as a ‘traveller’.  He was active as a merchant and factor during the 1840s in Victoria Street, selling table knives (and pianofortes).  In 1845, he was a warden at St Philip’s Church, Shalesmoor.  In the mid-1850s, he was listed as a cutlery merchant in Portobello Street at Hecla Works, with a residence at Howard Hill House.  He displayed ‘cutlery of various kinds’ at the New York Exhibition of 1853 and is known to have exported Bowies to the USA.  

In 1858, however, Warner was bankrupt.  In 1860, it was reported that Joseph’s uncle, D. Sims, had left a substantial fortune acquired in Australia to his nephew’s children (Sheffield Independent, 31 March 1860).  But this wealth seems to have had little impact on Joseph’s career.  In 1860, he moved to York and became a sales representative for Burton Brewery Co.   Four years later, 52-year-old Joseph was jailed for a year at York Assizes for embezzling money from his employer.  On his release, he moved to Brighton and became a coal merchant, but was declared bankrupt again in 1883.  His subsequent biography is unknown, though he may have left for Australia.  The Melbourne Argus, 7 June 1890, reported that Joseph Sims Warner, accountant of Moonee Ponds, was insolvent due to ‘want of remunerative employment’.   However, Joseph and Lydia’s son was also named Joseph Sims Warner (he had been born in Sheffield in 1841).