John Barber

1589 – 1589

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-06

John Barber is the earliest of the family we can reach. He lived at Witcham, in the Isle of Ely, and was the husband of a wife named Margaret; beyond that, his own origins are lost. What we know of him we know from a single document — his will, made in 1589 — which names Margaret and their children, William, Richard, John, Alice and Elizabeth, and sets down the small furnishings of a fen household: to his unmarried daughter Alice, a bed and its sheets, pewter dishes and platters, and a cupboard. He asked to be buried in Witcham churchyard.

Witcham's parish registers do not begin until about ten years after his death, so the record simply runs out above him. His children are known only in the order his will names them, and his parents not at all. Above him the parish record does not yet exist.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-06

Marriage: To Margaret
Children: William Barber Richard Barber John Barber Alice Barber Elizabeth Barber
Burial: Presumably 1589 in St. Martin's Church, Witcham

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Marriage

Children

WBChild · the line continuesWilliam Barbermain line1580–1631

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1589

Buried

about 1589 at Witcham

John Barber of Witcham, husband of Margaret; his will of 1589 names their children William, Richard, John, Alice and Elizabeth, leaves his unmarried daughter Alice a bed, sheets, pewter dishes and platters and a cupboard, and asks burial in Witcham churchyard. (Andrew Martin, Barber family research.)
— Will of John Barber, 1589

Secondary research record Evidence

From another researcher’s work — not yet verified against the originals:

Will of John Barber, 1589 — The will of John Barber of Witcham, 1589 — read in Andrew Martin's Barber family research (Family Trees / Barber). It names his wife Margaret and five children and asks burial in Witcham churchyard; it is the single record from which the earliest generations of the family are drawn. Not yet checked against the original — a round-two task. another researcher’s work

Our research

Beyond 1589 — the pre-register wall

Research · Ely & the manor of Witcham

John's parents cannot be reached through the parish registers, which begin about ten years after his burial; he survives only in his will. Breaking past him means the records that pre-date the registers. To do (round two): the original 1589 will at the Ely Consistory Court; the manorial court rolls of Witcham (a bishop's manor) and the Ely tithe and subsidy rolls, for a Barber holding land before 1589.