Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 65
John Barker, Esq., was a prominent man in the Colony.
He was often engaged as an attorney for parties in the transaction
of legal and other business ; was a referee in many
important cases. Though a resident of Barnstable, only
when young, and for about ten years after the time of his
marriage, he was not entirely disconnected with the business
of the town and county, after his removal. He was one of
the referees in the important case between the Winslows and
Clarks, which alienated those families and made their descendants
bitter enemies for more than a century.
The account which Mr. Deane gives of this family will
not bear the test of criticism. He says that Williams Barker
was a son of John Barker, Esq., second of the name,
and that Capt. John Williams gave his farm in Scituate to
Williams Barker. The latter was a brother, not a son of
John Barker, 2d. Capt. Williams in his will, gives to
"Nephew Williams Barker, son of John Barker of Marshfield,
the 200 acre farm formerly purchased of Mr. Hatherly."
He also gives legacies to nephews John Barker of
Marshfield and Abraham Blush of Boston.
It can be shown by the Barnstable town records that if
John Barker, 2d., had a son Williams, he could not have
been over six years of age at the date of Capt. John Williams'
will in 1691 ; yet Mr; Deane assures us that Samuel
Barker, Esq., only son of Williams Barker, was born in the
year 1684; that is, that Samuel was only one year younger
than his father Williams. If this is true, the Barkers of
early times were a more prolific race than the present John
Barker of Bwnstable.
The following account of his family is principally obtained
from the Barnstable town records. He married Jan.
18, 1676-7, Desire, youngest daughter of Anthony Annable
of Barnstable. She died, according to the inscription on her
grave-stones, at Scituate, July 24, 1706, in the 53d year of
her age. He married the same year for his second wife
Hannah, daughter of Thomas Loring of Hingham, and widow
of Eev. Jeremiah Gushing of Scituate. She died May 30,
1710, aged 46, and he took for his third wife Sarah ,
who died Sept. 7, 1730.
Children born in Barnstable.
I. John, born 4th May, 1678. He married in 1706, Hannah,
daughter of Eev. Jeremiah Gushing, whose widow