William Barker (1768 - abt. 1808)

Born 1768 in Smyrna (Izmir) Turkey

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1808 at about age 40 in South Carolina, United States

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Biography

William was born in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey in 1768. ^[1]. He was the son of William Barker originally of Bakewell, Derbyshire, and Flora Robin daughter of a French merchant. William was one of 7 children from his father's first marriage. His mother died in 1775, when William was a young child of 6 or 7 and his father remarried and had 13 more children.

William was educated in England, as were his brothers and he married Margaret Greenwood or Greenfield, who was English. They had 2 sons, Edward John Barker and Robert Barker, both believed to have been born in London, England. William went to South Carolina in 1807 with his wife and children and he died not long after, possibly in 1808. William is mentioned in his father's will, as having predeceased him and provision is made in the will in 1825, for William's son Robert. ^[2]

William is also mentioned in the biography of his son Edward John Barker, in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography:

BARKER, EDWARD JOHN, doctor, publisher, and editor; b. 31 Dec. 1799 at Islington (now part of London), England, son of William Barker and Margaret Greenwood. ... [He] went to South Carolina with his family in 1807. His father died soon after and Barker returned to Norfolk County, England, to attend school. In 1814 he joined the household of a distinguished uncle, John Barker, British consul at Aleppo (Haleb), Syria, before being apprenticed to a surgeon-apothecary in Malta.

The John Barker mentioned above, uncle of William's son Edward, was William's younger brother John Barker, known as Jack. [1]; John Barker.

Sources

1. ↑ http://levantineheritage.com/pdf/Biography-of-William-Barker-Levant-Company-Merchant-Marjorie-Rear.pdf, pg 24
2. ↑ Will of William Barker contained in Derbyshire Record Office 7674/Bar D 800/42.

• http://levantineheritage.com/pdf/Biography-of-William-Barker-Levant-Company-Merchant-Marjorie-Rear.pdf with thanks to The Levantine Heritage Society, Professor Daniel Schafe from the University of Florida, Matteo Giunti and his Leghorn Merchants Network, the Sheffield archives and Emeritus Professor John Rear.
• John W. Spurr, “BARKER, EDWARD JOHN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 30, 2018, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/barker_edward_john_11E.html.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barker_(diplomat)