 BARLOW
of BARLOW
Summer Issue - August 1994 A. Maxim Coppage, Founder Edson L. Barlow, Editor 840 East Gunn Road, Rochester, Michigan 48306-1905 |
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Annual index included with the November issue. Subscriptions are $10 annually. Please send all editorial material, queries and subscription requests to: Edson L. Barlow, 840 East Gunn Road, Rochester, Michigan 48306-1905 |
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John Barlow (ca. 1600 - 1674) of Fairfield, Connecticut
John Barlow, the immigrant ancestor of one Barlow line in America, came to New Eng- land with his family early in the 17th century and settled at what is now the town of Fairfield in Fairfield County, Connecticut. All that is known about him from the available records is that he sold some land, his children married and his will was run through probate. Much about him remains a mystery, although there are clues that can be used to partially reconstruct his life. Ancestry and Nativity John Barlow was probably born around 1600. This guess is based pretty much on the assumption that he was about twenty years old when his first child was born in 1620- 25. A birth year of 1600 would make him about 74 years old when he died. John Barlow's birthplace is another matter. John was apparently a descendant of Roger Barlow (ca. 1500 - 1553), according to the English College of Heralds. Roger Barlow was the first of the family to settle in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and he pur- chased an estate, Slebetch Manor, there from the crown in 1546. Joel Barlow, a descendant of John Barlow, applied for and was given the privilege of the Barlow of Slebetch arms by the English College of Heralds when he was in England in the late 18th century. (The Barlow of Slebetch arms are shown above on the right in the masthead of this newsletter; the Barlow of Lancaster arms are on the left.) Based seemingly upon this, a num- ber of references have stated that John Barlow was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales. While there seems to be little doubt that John was a descendant of the Barlows of Slebetch (it would be nice to see the College of Heralds' research to onfirm their findings), it is much more likely that he was "of England" when he sailed for New England in the 1630's. Whether he was born in Wales or England remains a mystery. John Barlow's parents are not known from the records. In 1987 I received from Mr. Hal Young copies of correspondence that he had received that indicate that John |
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Barlow's parents were Alexander Barlow and Mary Brereton of Manchester, Lanca- shire, England. A Mormon Archive Record group sheet prepared by Estelle Tidwell Rowley in, I think, the 1930s (the Temple Ordinance Data's earliest date is 1931) shows a Sir Alexander Barlow and Mary Brereton having 14 children from 1581 to about 1602 at Manchester. Their twelfth child was a John Barlow born about 1598 and he was given as marrying Ann Ward. Her source references were given as:
Whether this is our John Barlow is open to question. Colonial naming customs would seem to indicate that these were not John Barlow's parents. The fact that John's first-born son was named John is normal, and he had no other son to name Alexander. But if his mother was Mary Brereton, I would expect a daughter to be named Mary. Instead, he had Elizabeth, Martha, Deborah, Isabella and Ruth, and I would expect his mother and his wife's mother to have one of these names. Another problem with Alexander Barlow is his ancestry which does not include Roger Barlow of Slebetch and would belie Joel Barlow's claim to the Barlow of Slebetch arms. Alexander's ancestry is traced back to Albini
de Sale by Sir Montague Barlow in his
Sir Alexander Barlow -A- (1558-1620) married Mary Brereton
On the other hand, Alexander and Mary were prominent
people. Sir Alexander was a Knight and his wife
Mary Brereton was apparently a descendent of King
Edward I. Perhaps even their twelfth
child was important enough to warrent a prominent home-
lot at Fairfield. Or perhaps Roger Ludlow, who was the
second son of Thomas Ludlow
Immigration and Settlement In her "A Memorial of the
Kindred and Ancestry of Harriet L.
Sturges Goulden of Fairfield, Connecticut", Harriet E. Goulden
Whitmore wrote in 1899 that, "John
Barlow, Puritan, entitled to his coat
of arms, registered as passenger on
board the Mathew, from London, May 21, 1635.
The ship sailed under warrent from
'ye Earl of Carlisle; Richard Goodlade, master.'"
While the time seems right, no doc- umentation
John Barlow was one of the earliest settlers at Fairfield [D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Fairfield County]. The first group that came in with Roger Ludlow, after he had received permission to settle Fairfield in September 1639 from the General Court at Hartford, included John Green, Thomas Staples, Thomas Newton, Edward Jessop and Edmund Strickland. Others, mostly from Watertown, Massachusetts, according to Farnham's Fairfield, The Biography of a Community, followed |
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shortly, and apparently included John Barlow and his family. Fairfield originally con- sisted of but eight or ten families, living along five roads that Ludlow established. These roads created four squares, each comprising twenty-five or thirty acres. John Barlow's homelot was situated with those of Roger Ludlow, Thomas Staples, Thomas Newton and Robert Hawkins in the so-called Ludlow Square, as shown on the above map [Elizabeth H. Schenck, History of Fairfield] In today's Fairfield, Frost Avenue is now the Post Road, Ludlow
Avenue is now the Old Post Road, and the Fairfield Historical Society
sits approximately on John Barlow's lot.
 So ... who was this John Barlow who was given a lot next door to Roger Ludlow? John Barlow held no public office and yet he seems to have been given a place in the original settlement that says he was an important person. Perhaps he or his wife were closely related to Roger Ludlow, or perhaps he and Roger Ludlow were close friends in England. It is, to me at least, a curious matter. |
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Death John Barlow died around the first of June
1674, probably at his home at Fairfield.
The inventory of his estate was taken on June 9, 1674, by George
Squire Sr., Richard Ogden and John Burr, and the will was proved
on November 03, 1674, at Fairfield. An agreement between
his son and two of his sons-in-law was entered into on Novem- ber 20, 1674
[Fairfield Probate District Records Vol. 1665-75 and Barlow
of Barlow page 66]
Kinsmen Thomas Barlow was a contemporary of John Barlow. He may have been a brother, a nephew or a cousin, a speculation based solely on the surname - no relationship can be gleaned from the records. Thomas Barlow was born probably around 1620 and probably in England. He came to New England about the same time as John Barlow, probably landing initially in Massachusetts. His appearance at Windsor, Connecticut, where
he was sued in 1649 by Richard Samwis of
that town, would indicate that he landed at Boston and
followed Thomas Hooker's overland route into Connecticut.
He subsequently settled at Fairfield where he may have owned
land as early as 1650.
Thomas Barlow married Rose Sherwood, a daughter
of Thomas and Alice Sherwood and the widow of Thomas
Rumbell, around 1650 at Fairfield. On December 3, 1653, Fairfield
granted Thomas Barlow six acres on the northwest
corner of Frost Square
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It is also an old family tradition or legend that James Barlow
of Suffield, Connecticut, was John Barlow's brother. It is not known
where this story originated but it has been repeated in Cuyler Reynolds'
Genealogical & Family History of Southern New York and in an article
by Cholly Knickerbocker in the old New York Journal
American. In his book The Isreal Barlow
Story and Mormon Mores, Ora H. Barlow offers
significant
Family With one possible exception, John Barlow's family
is given in his will. It is believed that it was
customary in colonial wills to list children first by
sex and then by birth order. That is, sons were listed
first in their birth order and then the daughters in
their birth order.
Thus John and Ann Barlow's children were: Ann Barlow was born probably around 1625-30 and probably in England. She married Samuel Drake on September 13, 1650, at Fairfield [Fairfield Vital Records] This marriage was also recorded as September 30, 1650, by the Rev. Silas Constant of the York- town, New York, Presbyterian Church. They moved to Eastchester New York, in 1663 and Samuel Drake died there in 1686. He was a son of John and Elizabeth (Rogers) Drake who came from England in 1630 [Barlow of Barlow, page 66] Ann died after Dec- ember 12, 1691 [The American Genealogist, 1987], probably at East- chester. Their children were: John Drake, born in 1654; Joseph Drake, born in 1663 and died on May 12, 1732; Rebecca Drake; Ruth Drake; Samuel Drake, died in 1690; Hannah Drake and Mary Drake. Elizabeth Barlow was born probably around 1620-25 and probably in England. She married Daniel Frost around 1640-42 at Fairfield and was his second wife. He was born around 1613 in England, was baptized on January 17, 1612/3, at St. Mary's, Nottingham, and was a son of William Frost who came to New England from Notting- ham. She died in 1686. Their children were:
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Their children were:
Deborah Barlow was born probably around 1630 and probably in England. She married John Sturgis in 1650 at Fairfield. He was born around 1624, probably in England. He died in 1700, probably at Fairfield. Their children were: Jonathan Sturgis, born around 1651; Joseph Sturgis, born around 1654; Sarah Sturgis, born around 1661-63; Deborah Sturgis, born around 1659-62; John Sturgis, born around 1655-60; Abigail Sturgis, born around 1663-73; and Thomas Sturgis born around 1657-68. Isabella Barlow was born probably around 1632 and probably in England. She married Peter Clapham around 1660 at Fairfield. He was born around 1628 and he died on February 18, 1698. Their only child was Abigail Clapham who married Thomas Merwin in March 1678/9 at Fairfield. John Barlow was born probably around 1635 and possibly in either England or Massachusetts. He had a home-lot on Main Street at Stratford, Fairfield County, Conn- ecticut, in 1660, at which time he was probably at least 21 years old. He sold this lot to John Hurd and moved back to Fairfield before 1668. He married Abigail Lockwood probably around 1667 and probably at Fairfield. She was born around 1640 probably at Watertown, Massachusetts, and was a daughter of Robert Lockwood and Susanna Norman, who had moved to Fairfield from Watertown about 1652. John Barlow's will was dated January 28, 1690/1, and the inventory of his estate was taken on March 6, 1690/1 [Fairfield Probate District Records] Their children were:
Note that the recorded birthdates of Joseph and Elizabeth are too close and there is apparently some error. Jacobus seems to have recognized this error and placed Joseph's birth between that of his sisters Abigail and Deborah, but without explanation. Ruth Barlow was born probably around 1640 and probably in Massachusetts. She married Francis Bradley around 1660-61 at Fairfield. He was born in 1625 in Eng- land and was an apprentice to Governor Theophilus Eaton at New Haven before coming to Fairfield in 1659. He died in October 1688 at Fairfield. Their children were:
Comments, arguments, criticism and facts (especially facts) are invited and will be published in future issues. |