Samuel Barton (bapt.1826-1873) was born and baptised at Dronfield, the son of William (a tailor) and his wife, Elizabeth.  He was living in Sheffield by 1841 and an apprentice cutler.  In the Census (1851), he was living at Whitehouse Quarry (near Whitehouse Lane) with his wife, Harriet, and working as a pen knife cutler.   Harriet died in August, aged 27, only a few weeks after the Census was taken.  She was buried at St Nicholas’ Churchyard, Bradfield.  In 1852, Samuel married Maria Laycock, the only daughter of John Laycock, a Sheffield mason.  The couple settled at Hillfoot, where Samuel continued to work as a spring knife manufacturer.   In 1859, he advertised in the Sheffield directory as a manufacturer of pen and pocket knives (and cutlery in general) at Hillfoot.

He lived close enough to observe the riot at the newly-created Wardsend Cemetery, when rumours spread that the local vicar was involved in body snatching.  At an official inquiry, Barton related how he had tried to deter the mob and had rescued the burial registers and gravedigger’s workbook (Sheffield Independent, 11 June 1862).  Barton presumably operated as a little mester (i.e. an employer), though he provided no details of his workforce for the Census.  On one occasion, one of his spring knife makers took him to court for alleged non-payment of wages (Sheffield Independent, 9 April 1867). 

Samuel Barton died at Hillfoot ‘after a few hours’ illness’ on 20 July 1873, aged 47 (Sheffield Independent, 26 July 1873).   He left under £600 to his widow, Maria.  He was buried at Wadsley Churchyard, where a headstone records his death; that of Wilfred, his youngest son, in 1890, aged 31; and his ‘relict’ Maria (granddaughter of Henshaw Grevis, Esq., of Moseley Hall, Worcestershire) in 1898, aged 76.