Henry Barnes

JOHN GORELL BARNES, the first Lord Gorell, was born at Anfield Cottage, in the parish of Walton- on-the-Hill, near Liverpool, on May 16, 1848. He was descended from David Barnes, a member of a Derbyshire family settled in the neighbourhood of Chesterfield. David was born in 1741, the eldest son and third child of John Barnes and Elizabeth Alison, and grandson of Edmund Barnes, who died in 1725. David Barnes married Eleanor, daughter of Edward Gorell of Hazel Hall, Yorkshire.* They had three daughters and one son, John Gorell Barnes, the grandfather of the subject of this memoir. David Barnes died in 1805. John Gorell Barnes married Elizabeth Taylor Clay, a member of an old Derbyshire family living near Chesterfield, and they settled at Ashgate House, near that town. John Gorell Barnes also owned properties at Grassmore and Grasshill, at Barnes (near Dronfield), at Stretton Hall and Handley Lodge. There were eight children of this marriage, six sons and two daughters. Henry, the son and the father of a John Gorell Barnes, was the fourth child and the third son. The eldest son, John David, died at an early age while in business in London. Ellen, the second child, lived to the great age of ninety-five, and was the fairy spinster aunt of the next generation. William and Henry, the third and fourth children, went into business. It was the policy of John Gorell Barnes to put his sons early out into business life. Henry was placed with Messrs. W. Cater and Nephew, of Liverpool. The two sisters of Mrs. Barnes married two brothers named Baxter of Dundee, and the Baxter family, proving successful in business, lent a hand to young Henry. His elder brother William had gone to Australia, and had built up in Melbourne, before the days of the gold fever, a large store for supplying the needs of farmers. Henry, with the help of the Baxters, started a forwarding agency in Liverpool, and joined hands with his Australian brother, working together under the firm name of "William and Henry Barnes." They also worked with their younger brother Charles, who was for a time in Australia. The forwarding agency prospered, and Henry became a shipowner, and his ships such as the Leichardt (named after the famous Australian explorer), the Chipica, the Adam Sedgwick, the Eivir, the Vanda ran to the West Coast of South America, San Francisco, the Brazils, and so forth. The development of a large shipping firm seemed likely at the date of his sudden death on February 15, 1865.
Charles was in Australia during the gold rush of 1851, and might have made a great fortune; but he would not remain in Melbourne, and set up a separate and fairly successful business in Liverpool. The other sons, Edmund and Alfred, also received business training, and after the death of their father took shares in the colliery on the family property at Grassmore, and, after great efforts, developed a substantial business. Henry married Georgiana, daughter of the Rev. Richard Smith of Edensor, Rector of Staveley, in July, 1847. The remaining child, Emily, had already married Courtney Smith, Georgiana's brother. In the family pedigree, drawn up by Lord Gorell, full particulars as to the various descendants of the original Edmund Barnes were set down.

• The origin of the name Gorell is unknown. It is supposed by the family to be a corruption of the name Goring.
  

John Gorell Barnes, first lord Gorell (1848-1913) a memoir by J.E.G. de Montmorency (1920) at the Internet Archive

His father, John, was born at Anfield Cottage, Walton in 1848. the eldest son of Henry and Georgiana Barnes who were both from Derbyshire. The ancestral home of the Barnes family was Ashgate House, Old Brampton, near Chesterfield where they were landowners and colliery proprietors. Photographs of Ashgate House can be seen at Brampton Old and New and Picture the Past.
Henry Barnes was a ship-owner and merchant engaged in the Australia and Brazil trade. At least three of his brothers had strong links to Liverpool. Edmund and Alfred married the Wilson sisters at Toxteth Park in 1854 before returning to Derbyshire. Charles Barnes re-located to Liverpool where he was also in the Australia trade. He lived in the Wavertree and Mossley Hill districts. Charles' grandson, Charles Roper Gorell-Barnes, (second cousin to Henry Gorell Barnes) also died in the First World War after winning the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order
Henry Barnes died at Anfield Cottage in February 1865 leaving four children of school age and the equivalent of £5 million. His wife died at Matlock Bath in 1873 at which time the family were living at Oakenholme, Little Saughall near Chester and her son, John, was describing himself as a gentleman.

Henry Gorell Barnes, Merseyside Roll of Honour