A set of four silver game bird menu holders, E. S. Barnsley & Co., Birmingham, 1913

E.S. Barnsley & Co., manufacturing silversmiths of Birmingham, was established about 1887 by Edward Soutter Barnsley (1863-1949), one of the children of Thomas Barnsley (1832-1901) and his wife, Sophia (née Soutter, 1836-1915), daughter of William Soutter, copper manufacturer and maker of ‘Soutterware.’His paternal grandfather, John Barnsley (1803?-1876) was head of John Barnsley & Sons, the building contractors responsible for many projects in central Birmingham, including the Council House, the City Museum and Art Gallery, the Children’s Hospital and the Grand Hotel.

E.S. Barnsley was married in 1887 to Jemima McLintock (1865-1933). By the time of the 1901 Census, Mr. and Mrs. Barnsley and their two daughters were living at La Hare, St. Martin on the island of Guernsey, where he was described as a fruit grower/employer. He was joined by his younger brother, Hubert Wallace Barnsley (b. 1877)

Meanwhile, in 1906 the firm of E.S. Barnsley & Co. was amalgamated with that of McKewan & Adie, manufacturing jewellers, &c. of Birmingham to form Adie Brothers Ltd., manufacturing silversmiths, with Barnsley’s continuing as a branch business. In 1963 Adie Brothers Ltd. became a subsidiary of British Silverware Ltd. and closed in 1968.