Barnes senior established the first steam-powered weaving mill in Farnworth and later, in 1832, brought cotton spinning to the town.
[4][a] Barnes resigned his chairmanship of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway but remained a director and major shareholder after becoming a Liberal MP for Bolton in the election of 1852.
[6][17] In December 1862, he bought a 200 acres (81 ha) cotton plantation in Jamaica with the intention of showing that it was possible to produce the raw material without using slave labour.
[1][6][20] He also donated around 4.5 hectares (11 acres) of land on his Birch Hall estate, as well as money, for development of Farnworth Park, which was opened amid great festivities in October 1864 by William Ewart Gladstone.
This latter gift was to commemorate his father and celebrate the coming of age of his only child, James Richardson Barnes, and was inspired by seeing children playing in the dirty, busy streets of the town.