He was successful, owning one of the finest collieries in the county at the time of his death.
When the Liberal Party split over the Irish Government Bill 1886, Barnes was re-elected at the 1886 general election as a Liberal Unionist, and held his seat until the 1892 general election.
In 1893 he was president of the Chesterfield and Midland Counties Institution of Engineers.
He was a Justice of the Peace and was in 1881 appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Derbyshire.
This article about a Liberal Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom representing an English constituency is a stub.