This pen knife, razor, and table knife manufacturer touted an establishment date of 1802.  The founder was Isaac Barber (1788-1854), who had been born in Kimberworth.  He was the son of Micah Barber (a Kimberworth collier) and his wife, Barbara, and was baptised on 23 April 1788 at Masbrough Independent Chapel, Rotherham.  In 1802, Isaac was apprenticed to Kimberworth knife maker Samuel Skinner and became a Freeman in 1811.  He married Mary Skinner (1785-1860), the daughter of his former master, and by 1822 Skinner & Barber had been formed as a pen knife and razor manufacturer at Edward Street.  It was dissolved in 1833.  In 1841, Isaac was living in Devonshire Street with his wife Mary and their son, James (1818-1859).  By 1845, Isaac and James Barber were making spring knives in Broad Lane.  By the 1850s, the firm’s trade mark was ‘ERA’ (possibly in use since 1835).   The words and mark ‘JAMES BARBER’ were also used, particularly on razors. 

Isaac died from heart disease on 21 June 1854, aged 66; James died on 1 September 1859, aged 40.  They were buried in the General Cemetery (James’s burial was unconsecrated).   James’ wife, Harriet, assumed control of the business, which in 1861 employed sixteen hands in Broad Lane.   In 1876, Harriet (and her manager, William Oxley) testified at the Commission into the Sheffield Outrages (Pollard, 1971¹).  She described herself as a ‘cutlery manufacturer’ in the Census (1881).   But the business soon passed to her son, Edward Barber (1848-1885).   He died on 28 September 1885, aged 37, leaving £1,014.   His widow, Mary Ann, next operated the company.  In 1893, she took Manico to court for using the name ‘Edward Barber’.  In court, Mary Ann stated that her best market was Ireland.  She partly won her case and an injunction was granted against Manico in Ireland (Sheffield Independent, 4, 8 March 1893).  

A ’faithful servant’ of the firm for over sixty years was Edward Cumberlidge (1825-1897), who was buried in the Barber family grave in the General Cemetery.  By 1900, I. & J. Barber was at Era Works in Wheeldon Street, Red Hill.  May Ann died on 27 March 1901, aged 50, and was buried at Ecclesall.  She left £40,110.  Her son, James (b.1874), was running the firm.  He lived in Parker’s Road and at The Grange, Sandygate, though by 1911 his address was in Stumperlowe Avenue.  In 1911, Barber’s acquired the name of James Barlow & Sons.  Before 1914, the Barber name / mark passed to Thomas Ellin in Sylvester Street.  After the War, ‘EXCELSIOR’ (also associated with Hides and Wostenholm) appeared in the company’s advertising.   Barber’s was listed in Sylvester Street (as part of Joseph Elliot) until the 1970s.  

^1. Pollard, S, The Sheffield Outrages: Report Presented to the Trades Union Commissioners in 1867 (New York, 1971)