The money left to provide for his wife and family was mostly lost due to an almost simultaneous collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank and a Cornish tin mine in which he had invested.

[2] Barlow went to the Quaker Stramongate School in Kendal but was prevented by his family's finances from going to university and studying medicine as his father had done.

He joined The Clydesdale Bank, where he earned enough for the family to move in 1881 to Murrell Hill Cottage in Carlisle, where Eliza Barlow remained until she died in 1894.

Barlow was increasingly involved in charitable work, giving talks to the Temperance League with his cousins Bertram and Theodore Carr.

[citation needed] The couple decided to revive the charitable work that the Carrs' eldest son, Henry, had begun.

As Mabel Barlow wrote in a memoir of her husband for their children in 1927, Willow Holme "was a dark and dangerous neighbourhood... with drunken brawls and horrible fights between women as well as men; terrified shrieks issued as wife or child was being ill-treated...." Other Quakers who helped including their cousin, Richard Cadbury of the chocolate firm and it was here that many young people received their first lessons in reading and writing.

Elizabeth Cadbury, then Chairman of the BVT, wrote, "The Trustees of the Bournville Village Trust, on the retirement of John Henry Barlow, wish to record their high appreciation of his devoted service help.

They know that the work which he has so lovingly performed has not only served the community which has immediately benefited from it, but will live as an example for all who follow this pioneer movement for housing reform.

The minute drafted by Barlow stated, "The Executive Body of the Society of Friends, after serious consideration, desires to place on record its conviction that the portion of the recent regulations requiring the submission to the Censor of all leaflets dealing with the present war and the making of peace is a grave danger to the national welfare.

We realize the rarity of the occasions on which a body of citizens find their sense of duty to be in conflict with the law and it is with a sense of gravity of the decision that The Society of Friends must on this occasion act contrary to the regulation and continue to issue literature on war and peace without submitting it to the censor and is thus acting in the best interests of the nation.

[10] The court was convened on 24 May, while the Yearly Meeting was in session, with John Henry Barlow as presiding Clerk reading the minute as quoted above.

When the Aldermen retired to consider the verdict, John Henry's clear and commanding voice was heard asking for Friends in court "to devote themselves to silent prayer."

Then the magistrate retired to consider his decision and the Clerk, of the Yearly Meeting, John Henry Barlow, rose and invited Friends who were present to engage in silent prayer.

In particular they questioned whether it was fair to allow John Henry Barlow as Clerk, to sign the document himself on behalf of Friends, thus risking his own imprisonment.

"At which point John Barlow rose and with his characteristic gesture of drawing himself up and throwing back his shoulders, his voice rang out across that crowded hall – 'Surely at such a time, no one is playing for safety.... [Neither] the Society nor am I concerned with what is safe, but what is true and right and I propose to sign the document.'

In a life tireless of industry and distinguished service, John Henry Barlow was a living expression of Quakerism at its highest and best – he was both a preacher and a doer of the word; and eloquent as was his preaching, it was not more so than the steadfast devotion and the fine capacity with which he served his fellow men.