Frederic John Barnes (the name was sometimes spelled Frederick) was born in Hendon, Middlesex, on 4 April 1800, the son of Edmund and Hannah Barnes.  In 1828, he married Sophia Susannah Kerslake Baker (1802-1888) – and by the time their first daughter, Fanny, was born in 1829 Frederic was an ironmonger in Fenchurch Buildings, London.  Until 1832, Barnes was in partnership with Thomas Kerslake Baker (c.1800-1879), who was apparently his brother-in-law.  Frederic Barnes & Co was eventually formed at 109 Fenchurch Street, near Tower Hill, and listed as a gun, rifle, and pistol manufacturer.  Barnes, though, was a merchant, who also sold ironmongery, including cutlery.  This was sourced from Sheffield, where by 1839 he had an office in Howard Street.  Joseph Clarke was the agent there in the 1840s and early 1850s (by which time Carver Street was the address).  Barnes also had a sales outlet in Livery Street, Birmingham, which was managed by John Marrian (who had been born in Bobbington, Staffordshire, in 1807).

Frederic Barnes apparently prospered, though he had financial problems in 1847 caused by the Indian trade.  He lived in Sydenham village, Kent.  He died on 26 March 1856, aged 55, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery.  When his widow, Sophia, died in 1888 she left £27,073.   They had three daughters, but no sons, and after Barnes died his business passed to John Marrian.   The latter continued to operate in London, Birmingham, and Sheffield (where Frederic Barnes & Co’s address after about 1860 was Cornhill Works, Solly Street).   The emphasis shifted from table cutlery and Bowies towards files and other tools.  In the 1860s and early 1870s, John James Champion (born in London, c. 1835) was listed as the Sheffield agent.   After 1870, Slater Bros was one Sheffield firm from which Barnes’s commissioned cutlery, though this relationship ended two decades later in a quarrel over trade marks (Sheffield Independent, 14 January 1893).  John Marrian lived at Brondesbury House, Willesden, Middlesex and described himself as a South American merchant.  He brought his son, John Marrian (1834-1886), into the business and in the 1870s they were in partnership with William Greenwood and William Henry Greenwood.  This was dissolved in 1879.  

John Marrian Sen. died at his home on 13 September 1881, leaving £69,089.   His interests passed briefly to his son.  In 1889, Humphrey F. Waldron was the manager of the Sheffield office.  The Sheffield branch continued selling ‘every description of cutlery’ from Cornhill Works until the end of the nineteenth century.   One of the company’s first trade marks was ‘CASTEL’ (registered in 1880), which was stamped on cutlery for South America.   Later Barnes used the marks: ‘SENRAB’, ‘AGUILA’, ‘RECTO’ (with a picture of a chain mailed hand brandishing a sword); and ‘DURATION’ (with a picture of a snake symbolizing eternity).   The latter was later used by Kitchin.  

Frederic Barnes & Co (still at Fenchurch Street) was bankrupt in 1904, when William Marrian and Frederick York Marrian were the partners.  The Marrians continued to have interests in Sheffield as merchants.  In 1905, Fry, Marrian & Wells was listed at Cornhill Place Works, Edward Street, and Mincing Lane, London.  The partners were Ernest John Fry, Charles John Marrian (1858-1934) – who was John Marrian’s son – and Harry Ernest Wells.  The trade mark was ‘ORL (granted 1782)’.  Their partnership was dissolved in 1906, though Marrian & Wells continued to be listed in Edward Street, Sheffield, and Ropemaker Street, London.  It operated briefly after the First World War.