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| Notes for James (Spouse 1) | ||||||||||||||||||
| His will has him of Ragwell, England. He was a proprietor from 1640 and a tailor. 834FORREST E. BARKER. Thomas Barker and his brother James, the immigrant ancestor of Forrest E. Barker of Worcester, were among those twenty Puritan heads of families who came from England under the leadership of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, and who were described by him as "Godly men and most of them of good estate." They arrived in Salem in December, 1638. In April of the following year, having joined with them some forty others, they bought out the former proprietors of lands adjacent to Newbury and Ipswich, and established a township which they called Rowley, after the parish which had been the charge of the Rev. Rogers in Yorkshire, England. This township included in its limits, besides the present town of Rowley, the towns of Georgetown and Bradford. The act of incorporation was dated September 4, 1640, and the settlers labored in common for about five years. Thomas was made a freeman May 13, 1640, and James on October 7 of the same year. Thomas died without children in November, 1650, and his widow Mary, who came from England with him, became July 16, 1651, the third wife of the Rev. Rogers. He died January 23, 1660, in his seventieth year, leaving Mary as his widow. (I) James Barker was a native of the parish of Stragewell, in Suffolk county, England, and brought with him to Salem his wife Grace. He shared in the first and later divisions of lands in Rowley, and his home was on Weathersfield street, on land granted to him in 1643. His wife Grace died in February, 1665-6. He married, May 22, 1666, Mary, widow of John Wyatte, one of the early settlers of Ipswich, and a freeman there in 1635. His will was dated September 3, 1678, and he was buried on the 7th of the same month. He was a tailor by trade, but seems to have been also a successful farmer, and was active in town affairs. He was for several years a judge of delinquents under the law which fined those who refused to attend when summoned to town meetings, served frequently as juryman and in November, 1677, was one of the first tythingmen selected by the town under the act of that year authorizing the appointment of such officers. His children were: 1. Barzillai, mentioned below. 2. James, born 1641, married, May 10, 1667, Mary, daughter of William Stickney. They moved to Suffield, Connecticut (then a part of Massachusetts, and later settled in Springfield, Massachusetts. 3. Eunice, born June 2, 1642, died May, 1645. 4. Nathaniel, born October 15, 1644, married Mary (???), died in Rowley, November 10, 1722. 5. Eunice, born February 11, 1645-6, married John Watson. 6. Grace, born April 1, 1650, married November 3, 1680, James Cannady, died February 19, 1723-4. 7. Tamar, born December 13, 1652, died the same month. 8. Stephen, born September 10, 1653, died December, 1653. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified 13 Dec 1999 | Created 6 Jan 2007 by EasyTree for Windows |