Thomas Barber (bef. 1612 - 1662)

Born before 25 Dec 1612 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England

Husband of Jane (Unknown) Barber — married 7 Oct 1640 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 11 Sep 1662 after age 49 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut

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Thomas Barber migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 1, p. 154) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Thomas Barber^[1] was christened 25 December 1612 at St. George Parish, Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Lumley) Barber.^[2] He may have been born 21 December, which is St. Thomas day. This is also supported by the fact that his apprenticeship referenced St. Thomas' day.

That the above Thomas was also the immigrant to Connecticut is supported by the following:

"Received of Francis Stiles for apprenticing Thomas Barber, son of John Barber of Stamford in the County of Lincoln, yeoman, deceased, from St. Thomas's day next for 9 years. 2s. 2d."^[3]

He arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on the ship Christian in 1635.^[4]

"Before coming to New England Thomas was apprenticed on 18 Dec 1634 for a period of 9 years (until December 1643) under Francis STILES, a master carpenter from Millbrook, Bedfordshire, England. Stiles was contracted by Sir Richard SALTONSTALL to bring apprentices to Windsor, and to build houses in America for Englishmen who were to follow. Thomas Barber at the age of 21 was among the twenty apprentices plus others who sailed with Stiles for New England in the ship "Christian" (John White, Master), which left London 16 Mar 1634 (Julian Calendar), and arrived 3 months later in Boston June 1635. Each of the passengers had a certificate which read in part: "with certificate from St. Mildred, Bread Street, London, and having taken the oaths, to be transported to New England from London in the "Christian". [~ from the Public Record Office, Westminster Hall, London ~] After 10 days at Boston the Christian sailed up the Connecticut River to Windsor, arriving there on the first of July 1635. That same year Thomas was granted a lot of a few acres, extending from Mill Brook, near the old Warham gristmill, north along both sides of Poquonock Avenue."^{[citation needed]}

On 16 March 1634/5, Thomas Barber, age 21, was enrolled as a passenger for New England on the Christian, having taken the oath of allegiance and supremacy.^[5]

He was a carpenter.

On March 28, 1637, "it is ordered that Mr. Frances Stiles shall teach Geo. Chapple, Tho: Cooper & Thomas Barber his servants in the trade of carpentry..."^[6]

The year 1645 found Thomas still an apprentice carpenter. Stiles apparently was slow to finish Thomas's apprenticeship, and needed a court order to force him to do so. Shortly after that Thomas was a free man.^{[citation needed]}

He served as a Sergeant in the.

The Pequot War in 1637, which according to the settlers was precipitated by the Pequot Indians and their continual harassment of the settlers, the friendly Mohegan Indians, and sometimes the Narragansetts, found Thomas a Sargeant, serving under Captain John Mason,^[7] one of 30 soldiers from Windsor who were enrolled under Major Stoughton for 3 weeks and 2 days. Under the leadership of Captain John MASON, the May 26 1637 night attack on the Pequot fort was a complete surprise to the sleeping Pequots, and a large percentage of the tribe was massacred. Thomas Barber's bravery (he was inside the Pequot Fort at Mystic during the attack, and along with Edward Pattison, “having no time to reload their muskets, slew seven fleeing Indians with axes and knives”), gained him honorable mention from Capt. Mason, and in return for this service, in 1641 he was granted 600 acres of land in Massaco, in the western part of Windsor. Massaco became Simsbury in 1669.^{[citation needed]}

He married in Windsor 7 October 1640 Jane ____.^[8] She died in Windsor 10 Sep 1662 as the "wife of Thomas Bar Ber"^[9] Her maiden name is unknown.^[10]

• A 1910 genealogy claimed she was Jane Bancroft, widowed mother of probably siblings Anna/Hannah, John and Thomas Bancroft of Windsor and Springfield, but no proof has been found.^[11] McCracken points out that the Jane Bonython who married John Bancrof was born in 1573, therefore too old to have borne the children of Thomas Barber. Others have claimed this Jane was born about 1606, still too old to mother Barber's children.
• Two of Thomas's sons married COGGIN ladies, but there is little sign that Jane was a Coggin, as some have suggested. One report (LDS record) has it that Jane COGGIN, b Bedfordshire ENG 1619 was daughter of John COGGIN, b in Bedford, Bedfordshire about 1593.
• It has been said by some that Thomas may have married the daughter of one of the Dutch traders at Old Saybrook, or Hartford, and also that the one he married was “the first white woman to land in Connecticut”.
• One of Francis STILES' sisters was named Jane, born 1605. She married in England and presumably remained there.
• There was a Jane MORDEN or WORDEN, age 35 (in 1635), on the passenger list of the Christian; nothing further is known about her; she seems too old to have borne all of Thomas's children. ^{[citation needed]}

Either he or his wife was a member of the Windsor, Connecticut church since their children were baptized there.

On 8 December 1640, he was granted a houselot of 8 acres and 12 acres of woodland in Windsor. On the same day he purchased additional land from Benjamin Nuberry.^[12]

He was made freeman in Connecticut 10 April 1645.^[13]

In 1649, Thomas Barber was found liable for a debt to William Franklin. Thomas claimed that he had given the money to Thomas Ford to pay to Franklin.^{[citation needed]}

In 1650 Sargeant Barber was fined 5 pounds and forced to surrender his rank, for the disorderly striking of Lt. Cooke in an argument over church matters; Thomas believed that the church had no right to interfere in temporal matters. This penalty was later canceled when apparently Thomas apologized: "he is affected with his great evil and rash passionate carriage in striking the Lt." Thomas left an estate appraised at over 132 pounds. ^{[citation needed]}

He served on the Connecticut Particular Court jury in December 1655 and again 1 Dec 1659.^[14]

He died in Windsor, Connecticut 11 September 1662,^[15] at which point he was planning move from Windsor to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he was offered a home lot and 20 acres.^[16]

An inventory valued at #132.14.00 was taken 20 Oct 1662, and approved 4 Feb 1662/3, at which time. Samuell went to live with his brother, Thomas to learn a trade; Mercy was placed with Lt. Walter Filer and his wife, until she was 18; Josias was placed with Deacon John Moore, until he was 21.^[17][18][19] His estate was distributed on 6 Jun 1662.

• "to John and Sarah jointly as their father willed," property and cash.
• Thomas Barber, his father's tools as well as property and a mare
• Samuell Barber, cash
• Mercey, cash
• Josias, cash

Children^[20][21]

1. John bp. July 24, 1642; m in Springfield 2 Sep 1663 Bathsheba Coggins
2. Thomas b July 14, 1644; m in Windsor 17 Dec 1663 Mary Phelps, dau of William Phelps.
3. Sarah bp July 19, 1646; m in Windsor 26 Nov 1663 Timothy Hall
4. Samuel bp Oct 1 1648; m1 in Windsor 1 Dec 1670 Mary Coggins; m2 in Windsor 25 Jan 1676/7 Ruth Drake
5. Mercy, bp. as "Mary" Oct 12, 1651; m as "Mercy" in Windsor 8 Jul 1668 John Gillett, son of Jonathan.
6. Josiah b. Feb 15 1653; m1 in Windsor 22 Nov 1677 Abigail Loomis; m2 by 12 Mar 1701/2 Sarah (____) Drake, widow of Enoch Drake.

Sources

1. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume I, A-B, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999, pp 154- AmericanAncestors (subscription)
2. ↑ Anderson, p 155, citing Donald S. Barber, "The English Origins of Thomas Barber of Windsor, Connecticut," in The American Genealogist, 71(1996):111-12
3. ↑ Anderson, p 156, citing The American Genealogist, 71:111
4. ↑ Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. London: John Camden Hotten, 1874 p. 42
5. ↑ Anderson, p 156, citing Hotten 42
6. ↑ Anderson, p 154, citing CCCR 1:8-9
7. ↑ Bodge, George M., Soldiers in King Philip's war; being a critical account of that war, with a concise history of the Indian wars of New England from 1620-1677, official lists of the soldiers of Massachusetts colony serving in Philip's war, and sketches of the principal officers, copies of ancient documents and records relating to the war, also lists of the Narraganset grantees of the united colonies, Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut; with an appendix, 3d ed., Publisher Boston, Mass., Printed for the author
8. ↑ Anderson, p 155, citing Grant 24, which provides no surname
9. ↑ Anderson, p 155, citing Connecticut Vital Records 21, Grant 83
10. ↑ George E. McCracken, "Bancrofts in the Connecticut Valley," in The American Genealogist, 37(1961):154-160.
11. ↑ McCracken, p 154-155, citing Charles Edwin Booth, One Branch of the Booth Family, New York (1910), p 44
12. ↑ Anderson, p 154, citing WiLR 1:24
13. ↑ Anderson, ,p 154, citing CCCR 1:124
14. ↑ Anderson, p 154, citing RPCC 154, 205
15. ↑ Anderson, p 155, citing Connecticut Vital Records, 21, and Grant, 83
16. ↑ Donald S. Barber, The Connecticut Barbers: A Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Barber of Windsor, CT, McDowell Publishers 1992
17. ↑ Anderson, p 155, citing RPCC 262, 264
18. ↑ Manwaring, Charles William. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records.Volume 1. Hartford District 1635-1700. Hartford, Conn., R.S. Peck & Co., Printers, 1904.) p. 94
19. ↑ Vol. 22 Records of the Particular Court of Connecticut 1639-1663 Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society (The Connecticut Historical Society and the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, Hartford 1860) pp 262/3
20. ↑ Anderson, pp 155-156, citing Connecticut Vital Records, Grant and Manwaring
21. ↑ Wilson, Lillian Mae and Barbour, Edmund Dana, Barber genealogy (in two sections) Section I. Descendants of Thomas Barber of Windsor, Conn. 1614-1909. Section II. Descandants of John Barber of Worcester, Mass. 1714-1909 Haverhill, Mass.: Press of the Nichols printer, 1909. at Archive

See also:

• Henry R. Stiles, The History of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut, New York (1859) 19-22; Hartford (1891-92) 1:44, 151, 2:40
• Hotten, John Camden, The Original Lists Of Persons Of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold For A Term Of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; And Others Who Went From Great Britain To The American Plantations, 1600-1700 (John Camden Hotten, 1874) pp 42-43
• Donald S. Barber, The Connecticut Barbers, Middlefield, CT (1992), 1-2
• Worshipful Company of Carpenters, Court Minute Book 1618-35, Guildhall Library MS 4329/4
• Family History Library, Salt Lake City, film #1450474, 1450472; 509002, item 2;
• Edwin Stanley Welles, Births, Marriages and Deaths Returned from Hartford, Windsor, and Fairfield..., Hartford (1897), 21.
• "Matthew Grant Record," in Some Early Records and Documents of and Relating to the Town of Windsor Connecticut, 1639-1703, Hartford (1930), p 24.
• Windsor Historical Society
• Jay Mack Holbrook, 1992;
• 1909 Barber Gen;
• Barbour Index;
• Lyman Barber Gen;
• Lure of the Litchfield Hills
• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~barberfamily/genealogy/
• Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1862)
• Official English records
• John Barber birth
• Find A Grave
• "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74V-JMC : 3 December 2014), Samuell Barber, 01 Oct 1648; citing ; FHL microfilm unknown.
• Phelps, Noah Amherst. History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton, from 1642 to 1845 (Case, Tiffany and Burnham, Hartford, 1845) Page 168
• Wilson, Lillian May. Barber Genealogy (Nichols Print., Haverhill, Mass., 1909) Page 15
• The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1860) Vol. 14, Page 302