The Barker Surname

My Uncle Tony recalled that his grandmother, Lucy Burr Wadhams, thought of her husband [Abram Barker] as a “Johnny-come-lately” without the deep historical connection to America (and Goshen specifically) of her lineage.

My Uncle Tony mused that the family name was associated with a carnival barker, yet it seems more likely that the surname derived from OE “beorc” meaning to tan hides using tree bark, pointing to the occupational surname for tanners and bark-strippers.

The Barker name is the most challenging part of my pedigree to trace – I can reliably only get back to my GGG-grandfather who was born and died in England. His son, John Barker emigrated from England for America, settling in Maine where my Great grandfather (Dr.) Abram Barker was born.

Todmorden, England appears to be the family omphalos. Geographically situated northeast of Manchester and southwest of Leeds. The parish records have not been fully digitized so I cannot find earlier marriage and birth records than Abraham and Betty.

While I can establish that the male line is rooted in the Todmorden/Calder Valley by early 1800s I have yet to trace it backward in parish and nonconformist registers to locate a prior county of origin. However, the Barker of Holbeach and Barker of Todmorden lines are separated by distance but not by implausible migration patterns.

There is no documented genealogical connection between the Todmorden Barkers and the Barker families of Holbeach or Great Steeping. They are simply geographic candidates.

Arthur Roland Maddison (1843-1912) collected and edited the Lincolnshire Pedigrees and recorded the Barker line of Great Steeping:

The Great Steeping pedigree’s statement of Derbyshire origin provides a credible bridge county. A two-generation relocation westward, fueled by trade, dissent, and industry, could plausibly produce the Todmorden line. Pending corroboration via parish and legal records, the linkage remains unproven but historically possible. However, there is no record of such a migration, and occupational Barkers are extremely common across the Midlands and North.

The Ogilby and Moll maps (1675–1724) show a continuous roadway linking Lincolnshire market towns to the Pennine valleys through Derbyshire. This east–west road system became the artery for craft and trade migration.

Great Steeping, 25 miles northeast of Holbeach, confirms that multiple Barker lines occupied the Lincolnshire fenland by the 17th century, one claiming descent from Derbyshire. This descent gives geographic plausibility to a Barker migration from the midlands into Todmorden’s textile region two centuries later. The Holbeach → Todmorden vector thus serves as the evidentiary spine for reconstructing a potential lineage, situating my ancestors within a realistic historical migration path.

The Grantees of Arms lists several Barker lines

And Burke’s General Armory provides the blazon/motto citation:

My goal in researching the Barker lineage was to establish which crest should be used on signet rings which I planned as a family Christmas gift for each of us.

I cannot prove to be of an armigerous family with a coat-of-arms but as a convenience the Barkers of Holbeach appear to be the most geographically proximate lineage. And this was fortuitous. The crest is a griffin out of a ducal coronet and, more poignantly, the family motto is Fide Sed Cui Vide (Trust, but in whom take care) – a wonderful coincidence given my oft-used quip, “trust but verify!”

I take that coincidence as evidence of genetic disposition – thus providing provenance.

This particular image does not belong to any verifiable Barker lineage in the College of Arms, Lyon Court, or Ulster’s Office:

It is a composite, commercial design made from: a Suffolk lion; a Kent/Lancashire fleur-de-lis motif; a modified Holbeach griffin, and the Holbeach motto. No single historical Barker family used this combination.

All this to justify the use of the griffin on a signet ring. A signet ring to evidence the bond we share as immediate family members.

And a longer connection to those ancestors (barely remembered) who preceded us. I hope my boys eventually find the ancestral connections meaningful.