The

Barber

Taken from 'The Barber of the Peak' by Ivan Mitford-Barberton:
Like many of the old English families, the Barbers have been closely associated with one country for centuries.  Right back in the dim Middle Ages we find them located in the wild and rugged vastness of the Great Peak in northern Derbyshire.
Of Norman origin, they are said to have come from the town of Sainte-Barbe-sur-Gallon in France, and certain members of the clan are recorded on the Battle Abbey Roll with other followers of William the Conqueror.
In the untamed wilderness of the Great Peak the family exercised considerable influence over the rural village life and the development of what was perhaps the roughest and most untamed part of England.  Far from the civilizing influence of industrial centres, shut off by deep forests and rugged mountains, the hardy inhabitants of the Great Peak gradually conquered this wild district, developed its mines of silver and of lead, and gradually tamed perhaps one of the most beautiful district in 'Merrie England.'
Here in these wilds lived the great barber clan, toiling, pioneering, and 'settling the waste places'-and the spirit of our ancestors still urges their hardy descendants to blaze the first trail on the outposts of the Empire.  In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the mane stood high in rank and dignity, and history lands its bearers as loyal subjects of king and country.  Henry Barber, Lord of the Peak, stands foremost among those in the thirteenth century......
......The spelling takes the form of Barber, Berber, Barbor, Barbur, and Barbour; but in all cases the pronunciation was the same.  The family was settled in the villages in the Peak district.  We find them at Chapel-en-le-Frith (a 'frith' is a clearing in the forest), Chinley, Tideswell, Malcoff, Edale, Eyam, Hope Norton, Barber Booth, Hathersage, and down at Castle Donnington in south Derbyshire.
An early mention of the name is a record of Richard le Barbut, of Brocton, a small hamlet in the wilds of the Peak.  It was in the year 1283.  Others are found at Glossop at the Darley Dale, where the Rev. John Barber was rector in 1382.
In the fifteenth century we find one of the family trekking northward and settling in the wilds of Yorkshire at the village of Doncaster, where there is an old church containing a vault, and on the ancient tombstone is inscribed:

Here lyes
William Barbour
Sometime Honourable Merchant of Doncaster
with Isabel and Rose, his two wives,
Which William dyed A.D. MCCCCXX
Whose souls by Mercy of Jesus Christ
Rest in Peace
Amen.

.........As an extremely wealthy merchant of Calcutta, he owned extensive property, warehouses, shops, &c., to the value of about £300,000.  He returned to London in 1799 but 'took sick and died' in an hotel at Adelphi, leaving all his property to his mother, Margaret Barber, who, unknown to him, had died a month or two before.  Charles's brother George-a useless sort of a fellow-was lost in India and never traced.
The Government advertised for relatives to come and claim the money-and the clan of Barber rose as one man.  Every Barber in the kingdom had a claim and, after a lot of sifting and eliminating, a certain amount was paid out in 1801, but about a quarter of a million pounds was held in Chancery.  Some years afterwards a group of Barbers who  claimed relationship to Charles Barber, the Calcutta merchant, fought a legal action against the Government in an attempt to get the money.  It was called 'The Great Barber Case' and the poor fellows failed to prove their claim, so the Government still has Charles Barber's money-now, reckoning at compound interest, worth considerably more than £1,000,000.

Many of the Barber family appear to be either artists or ministers, and a few others are writers.  In the case of this Barber line is descended from the artist Thomas Barber.  His eldest son was also an artist while his other was a parson.  They came from the Derbyshire area.  Thomas Barber was born in 1729 and tradition says he was a spinning-mill owner.  Some of his daughters were baptized at the Castle Gate Congregational Chapel in Nottingham.

Barber Family Tree

Thomas Barber, b. 1729 d. 1843 m. Ann Tomlin (nee Abbot)
1.  Elizabeth Barber, m. John White
2.  Ann Barber, 1765 m. Samuel Harris
3.  Sarah Barber, 1767 m. William Tunney
4.  Mary Barber, b. 1769 m. Robert Beeby
5.  Thomas Barber, b. 28/3/1771 (the artist)

1.2.7  Hilton Hilton-Barber, b.28/2/1842 d. 6/9/1928

Rev Henry Barber, and his wife Hannah Atherstone from a painting by Thomas Barber

Anne Barber from portrait by Thomas Barber

8.1  Frederick Hugh Barber, b. 1847, d. 1919 m. Eira Rebecca Evans

Frederick Hugh Barber

                            1.8.1.1 Thomas Henry Rex Barber, b. 1903 m. Elsie May Chiverton

Thomas Henry Rex Barber

                  1.8.2  Henry Mitford Barber, b. 1850 d. 1920 m. Mary Layard

Extract from 'The Bowkers of Tharfield' by Ivan & Raymond Mitford-Barberton Henry Mitford Barber, who later in life assumed the surname of Mitford-Barberton.

Henry Mitford-Barberton

                             1.8.2.1  Ivan Graham Mitford-Barberton, b. 1896 d. 1976

Ivan Graham Mitford-Barberton Author of 'The Bowkers of Tharfield; together with his brother Raymond

                                         m1. Cecile Hoole
                                        1.8.2.1.1  Elaine Mitford-Barberton, b. 1923 m. John W. Alden
                                                         1.8.2.1.1.1  Anthony John Alden, b. 1949
                                        1.8.2.1.2  Roland Atherstone Mitford-Barberton, b. 1927
                                        1.8.2.1.3  Michael Francis Mitford-Barberton, b. 1932
                                                         m2.  Pamela Sybil Gibbs
                                        1.8.2.1.4  Catherine Mary Mitford-Barberton, b. 1945
                                        1.8.2.1.5  Nicholas Mitford-Barberton, b. 1946
8.                       1.8.2.2  Raymond Berners Mitford-Barberton, b. 1897 m. Morah M N (Peggy)
                                       1.8.2.2.1  Gareth de Bohun Mitford-Barberton, b. 1925
                                                        m. Patricia Mary Thorpe
                                       1.8.2.2.2  Hazel Valerie Mitford-Barberton, b. 1928
                                                        m. Richard James D. O'Grady
                         1.8.2.3  Thane Renshaw Mitford-Barberton, b. 1901 m. Marjorie Eaton

Thane Renshaw Mitford-Barberton

                                        1.8.2.3.1  Drucilla Joan Mitford-Barberton, b. 1939 (adopted in 1946)
                                        1.8.2.3.2  Ian Mitford-Barberton, b. 1941 (adopted in 1946)
                          1.8.2.4  Alban McGowan Mitford-Barberton, b. 1904 m. Mary Matthews

Alban McGowan Mitford-Barberton

                                       1.8.2.4.1  Simon Anthony McGowan Mitford-Barberton, b. 1936
               1.8.3  Mary Ellen Barber, (Highlie) b. 1853 d. 1938 m. Alexander Cumming Bailie
                         1.8.3.1  Frederick Alexander Hope-Bailie, b. 1879 m. Estelle Hope-Bailie
                         1.8.3.2  Sydney Mitford Hope-Bailie, b. 1881 m. Marjory Sutherland 
                                      1.8.3.2.1  John Alexander Hope-Bailie, b. 1929
                         1.8.3.3  Archibald Bowker Hope-Bailie, b. 1884 m. Frances Richardson
                                      1. 8.3.3.1  Frances Hope-Bailie
                                      1.8.3.3.2  Alexander Cumming Hope-Bailie
                                      1.8.3.3.3  Daphne Hope-Bailie
                                      1.8.3.3.4  Barbara Hope-Bailie
                                      1.8.3.3.5  Koré Hope-Bailie
                        1.8.3.4  Gladys Mary Hope-Bailie, b. 1888 m. Henry Percy Cobb (Peter)
                                      1.8.3.4.1  Joan Evelyn Mary Cobb, 1911 m. Jack McNaughton
                                                       1.8.3.4.1.1  Charles McNaughton
                        1.8.3.5  John Hougher Hope-Bailie, b. 1890 m. Audrey Shillito
                                      1.8.3.5.1  Barbara Maryanne Hope-Bailie, b. 1930
                                      1.8.3.5.2  Michael Hope-Bailie, b. 1931
                        1.8.3.6  Helen Highlie Hope-Bailie, b. 1892 m. Evan Allan Cameron
                                     1.8.3.6.1  Rosemary Cameron, b. 1916
                                                      m1.  John Sharp
                                                     1.8.3.6.1.1  Carrol Ann Sharp, b. 1943
                                                     m2.  Alan Vaughan Kimber
                        1.8.3.7  Frances Annesley Hope-Bailie, b. 1894 m. Francis Beckord Gough
                                     1.8.3.7.1  Phyllis Caroline Mary Gough, b. 1915 m. David Roberts
                                     1.8.3.7.2  Francis Michael Gough, b. 1916 m. Diana Graves
                                                     1.8.3.7.2.1  Simon Peter Gough, b. 1942
                                     1.8.3.7.3  Peter Beckford Gough, b. 1918. Killed bombing Hamburg
                        1.8.3.8  Dorothy Amelia Hope-Bailie, b. 1900 m. Cecil Gerard Burge
            m2.  Anna Elizabeth Bateman

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