Wednesday 22 April 2020

(414) Barry of Castle Cor (Co. Cork)

The origins of this family are exceptionally confusing, and have defeated my genealogical skills. Burke's Landed Gentry makes no claim for any connection with the lineage of the Earls of Barrymore, but begins its account with the marriage of Richard Barry and Mary Norton in 1754, which was reported in the Gentleman's Magazine.  They state that the Richard Barry with whom the genealogy below begins, was the son of this marriage. 'Richard Barry' is remarkably elusive, however. According to Burke and to the Visitation of Ireland, he was a colonel in the 11th Hussars, but although a man of the right name was gazetted a cornet in the 11th Hussars in 1781 he resigned his commission in 1785. He may conceivably be the same Richard Barry as became a captain in the 4th Irish Brigade in 1795, was later placed on half-pay until allowed to sell his captaincy in 1825, and who died in 1827. There is no record of a Colonel Richard Barry in the Army Lists as far as I can see, so if our man held this rank at all it must have been in the militia.

Any child of Richard Barry and Mary Norton would have been well into middle age by the start of the 19th century, but 'Col. Richard' is said to have been married in 1812 to Eliza, the daughter of Darby O'Grady and the sister of Standish O'Grady, the Irish attorney general (later enobled as 1st Viscount Guillamore). Although I can find no contemporary record of this marriage, one of Eliza's sisters, Honora O'Grady, did marry a 'Jos. H. Barry' on 8 May 1810. His father's name is given as Joseph, not Richard, so I wonder if there is perhaps an intervening unrecorded generation, and that 'Col. Richard' and 'Jos H' were both sons of a lost Joseph? Someone else who must have been a near relation was William Norton Barry (d. 1823), a Dublin barrister who was admitted to Trinity College Dublin in 1773. That would put his date of birth at about 1755 and makes it very likely that he was a son of Richard Barry and Mary Norton. But was he 'Col. Richard''s brother or uncle?

We at last seem to be on slightly firmer ground with the next generation. William Norton Barry (1814-71) was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Dublin, before joining the army in 1835. He resigned his commission just four years later, with the rank of lieutenant, but since he was later widely referred to as Major Barry, he probably subsequently held a militia appointment. His first wife died in 1851, leaving him with an only daughter, but his second marriage in 1856 produced a son, also called William Norton Barry (1859-1935). In 1852 he purchased the Castle Cor estate through the Incumbered Estates Court and he subsequently became a JP for County Cork. In 1870 he was chosen as High Sheriff for 1871-72, but he died suddenly in January 1871 before he could take up the appointment. His son and heir was just twelve, and was sent off to Eton and then to Oxford, returning in 1880, when he came of age. Unlike many of his peers, who turned to the army or the professions for an income that would supplement their rental, William seems to have regarded hunting as a full-time occupation. On coming down from Oxford he established his own pack of beagles, which he ran for five years before taking over as Master of the Duhallow Foxhounds, of which he remained Master or joint-Master until 1919. His second wife, who was also a cousin, shared this passion, and she continued to ride to hounds - side-saddle - into her late 80s, becoming a legendary figure in the hunting field. All the expenditure on horses and the hunt meant that repairs and maintenance at Castle Cor were neglected, and this was particularly true in the years after the Second World War. When Kenneth Hope-Murray inherited the estate in 1959 he found the house more or less derelict and in part unsafe. He sold it in about 1960 and the house was demolished by the new owners in 1961.


Castle Cor, Kanturk, Co. Cork


Castle Cor (Co. Cork): the entrance front c.1820, from Neale's Views of Seats, vol 3, 1820. He shows the north wing which was never, in fact, built.
There was an old castle here on a site in the present park, known as Castle Cor or Castle Corith, from which the later mansion derived its name. The castle belonged in the 17th century to the Chinnery family, and either in or after the 1690s, John Chinnery sold the estate to William Freeman (1667-1732), who replaced the castle with a fashionable modern house with a hipped roof with dormer windows. As first built, it consisted of a two storey seven bay block with little two-storey pyramid-roofed corner towers at each of the four angles. The central three bays of the east-facing entrance front were stepped slightly forward and pedimented, and had a doorcase with a scroll pedimentThe house was first described in 1750, when it was called 'a handsome house, fronted with hewn stone, and flanked at each angle with turrets, and near it is a pleasant park'.


Castle Cor (Co. Cork): the garden front with its late 18th century bow, and the new wing of the early 19th century.

The estate passed to William Freeman's son, also William Freeman, who was succeeded in turn by his son Michael (who died childless) and daughter Jane, the wife of Joseph Deane (d. 1775). Jane's son, Edward Deane (1760-1826) took the additional name Freeman on inheriting the property, and was responsible for two phases of alterations to the house. In about 1788 he engaged an unknown architect to modernise the old house and to add a three-storey semicircular bow to the centre of the west-facing garden front. A little later (the house was called 'lately much enlarged' in about 1810), Freeman added a taller two-storey wing to the south side of the house, containing new reception rooms, and creating a new, if severely plain, south front. It is said that the intention was to build a matching wing on the north side of the building, restoring the symmetry of the elevations, but this was never built, although Neale's engraving of the house, published in 1820, shows it. In the space enclosed by the new wing, the main block and the south-east and south-west corner towers, an impressive top-lit staircase hall was formed, with a graceful wooden staircase. This shared with the new dining and drawing rooms on the ground floor of the wing a more generous scale than the old house, where the rooms were smaller and lower. 


Castle Cor (Co. Cork): an engraving of the house accompanying the sale particulars of 1852.
Edward Deane Freeman had a stroke while sitting as a magistrate in about 1812 (curiously the same thing happened to one of his grandsons in the 1850s), and spent his last years living quietly at Castle Cor. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph Deane Freeman (1783-1840) and grandson, Maj. Edward Deane Freeman (1818-61). The latter became impoverished during the famine years of the 1840s, when rents became impossible to collect, and he was eventually forced to sell the estate to William Norton Barry (1814-71) through the Incumbered Estates Court in 1852, for £14,185. Even selling up did not end his problems, however, for he was briefly imprisoned for debt in 1856, and he left a paltry estate of £220 at his death in 1861. 

The house seems to have been little altered after the early 19th century, although some modern conveniences were no doubt installed. On the death of the younger William Norton Barry in 1935, the property passed to his widow, Adelaide, who lived for hunting (she was still riding to hounds in her late 80s) and who allowed the house to deteriorate, to the point where the structure was described as unsafe by the time of her death. The estate was sold in about 1960 to new owners who only wanted the land and demolished the house the following year.

Descent: John Chinnery sold c.1700 to William Freeman (1667-1732); to son, William Freeman; to son, Matthew Freeman; to sister Jane, wife of Joseph Deane (d. 1775) of Terenure (Co. Dublin) and Dungar (Co. Kilkenny); to son, Edward Deane (later Edward Deane Freeman) (1760-1826); to son, Joseph Deane Freeman (1783-1840); to son, Maj. Edward Deane Freeman (1818-61); sold 1852 to William Norton Barry (c.1814-71); to son, William Norton Barry (1859-1935); to widow, Adelaide Maud Barry (1870-1959); to nephew, Kenneth Hope Murray (d. 1972), who sold c.1960; demolished 1961.


Barry family of Castle Cor



Barry, Richard (c.1785?-1870?). Said to have been the son, but more probably the grandson, of Richard Barry (fl. 1754), possibly of Kilcock (Co. Meath), and his wife Mary Norton of Jervis St., Dublin, born about 1785. An officer in the 11th Regt. of Light Dragoons (Lt. 1810*). He married, 1812, Eliza** (1787-1860), daughter of Darby O'Grady of Rockbarton alias Mount Prospect (Co. Limerick) and sister of Standish O'Grady, 1st Viscount Guillamore, and had issue:
(1) William Norton Barry (1814-71) (q.v.);
(2) Frances Barry (c.1816-96), born about 1816; married, 1 July 1833, as his second wife, Dudley Persse (1802-78) of Roxborough (Co. Galway), son of Robert Persse of Roxborough, and had issue eight sons and five daughters; died 22 March 1896; administration of her goods was granted in Dublin, 11 June 1896 (effects in Ireland, £28,454 and in England £345).
He is said to have died 17 April 1870, but there is no certainty that the Richard Barry who died on that day was this man. His wife died in 1860 and was buried in Dublin.
* Burke's Landed Gentry and other sources following it refer to him as a Colonel, but I have been unable to find any Col. Richard Barry in the Army Lists.
** Her sister Honora married a 'Jos. H. Barry' on 8 May 1810; his father was Joseph Barry and so perhaps Richard Barry's father was also Joseph. William Norton Barry (c.1755-1823), of Dublin, barrister-at-law, who must have been a near relation, was however of the right generation to be a son of Richard (fl. 1754).


Barry, Maj. William Norton (1814-71). Only son of Richard Barry (c.1785?-1870?) and his wife Eliza, daughter of Darby O'Grady of Rockbarton (Co. Limerick), born July 1814. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1832). An officer in the army (Cornet, 1835; Lt., 1837; retired 1839)  and later probably in the militia, since by 1860 he was usually referred to as Major Barry. JP for Co. Cork (by 1861). He was chosen High Sheriff for Co. Cork for 1871-72, but died before he could take up the office. He married 1st, 2 June 1840, Arabella (d. 1851), younger daughter of Col. William Persse CB, and 2nd, 19 January 1856 at Kilbrin (Co. Cork), Elizabeth (1823-1906), younger daughter of Sir William Wrixon-Becher, 1st bt., and had issue:
(1.1) Elizabeth Barry (c.1842-1930) of Hudscott, Chittlehampton (Devon), born about 1842; married 1st, October 1868 at Kilbrin, John Baring Short (1836-80), elder son of Francis Baring Short of Bickham House, Kenn (Devon), and 2nd, 7 June 1883 at St Stephen, Kensington (Middx), George Aubrey William Thorold (1847-1932) of Warkleigh (Devon), solicitor, but had no issue by either marriage; died 9 January 1930; will proved 12 March 1930 (estate £9,039);
(2.1) William Norton Barry (1859-1935) (q.v.);
(2.2) Frances Norton Barry (1861-62), born 21 December 1861 and baptised at Castlemagner (Co. Cork), 20 January 1862; died in infancy and was buried at Castlemagner, 24 January 1862.
He lived in Fitzwilliam Sq., Dublin until he purchased the Castle Cor estate from the Incumbered Estates Court in 1852.
He died intestate, 23 January 1871; administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 8 May 1871 (effects under £30,000). His first wife died after a long illness, 28 August 1851. His widow died 22 May 1906; her will was proved in London, 25 July 1906, and sealed in Dublin (effects in England, £3,196, and in Ireland, £2,135).

Barry, William Norton (1859-1935). Only son of William Norton Barry (1814-71) and his second wife, Elizabeth younger daughter of Sir William Wrixon-Becher, 1st bt., born 20 June 1859. Educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1878). Master of the Castlecor Beagles, 1880-85 and Master or joint Master of Duhallow Foxhounds, 1886-1919. JP for County Cork and a Member of Kanturk Rural District Council. He married 1st, 3 February 1881 at Bathwick (Som.), Constance Marianne (1855-98), third daughter of Frederick John Walker of The Priory, Bathwick, and 2nd, 1 June 1899 at Castlemagner (Co. Cork), Adelaide Maude (1870-1959), fifth daughter of Sir John Wrixon-Becher, 3rd bt. and Irish women's singles lawn tennis champion, 1911 and 1913, but had no issue.
He inherited the Castle Cor estate (1,023 acres) from his father in 1871. At his death it passed to his widow absolutely. After her death the estate was sold and the house was demolished in 1961.
He died 5 December 1935; administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 14 December 1937 (estate £1,554). His first wife died 22 March 1898; administration of her goods was granted 23 May 1898 (effects £133). His widow died 3 July 1959; her will was proved 21 April 1960 (estate £10,268).


Principal sources


Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1958, p. 57; J.P. Neale, Views of Seats vol. 3, 1820, no. 65; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn., 1990, p. 65; M.C. Lyons, Illustrated incumbered estates Ireland 1850-1905, 1993, pp. 45-46.


Location of archives


No significant accumulation is known to survive.


Coat of arms


None recorded.


Can you help?



  • Can anyone provide authoritative information about the identity and antecedents of Richard Barrow?
  • Can anyone provide further information about the ownership of the site of the house since 1960?
  • I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
  • As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.


Revision and acknowledgements


This post was first published 22 April 2020.

Sunday 19 April 2020

(413) Barry (later Bury-Barry) of Ballyclough and Lisnagar

Bury-Barry of Ballyclough
This family claimed kinship to the senior line of the Barry family, who became Barons Barrymore and later Earls of Barrymore (and who will be the subject of a future post), but the connection cannot now be established. They were already in possession of the Rathcormac estate in Co. Cork in the time of Redmond Barry (d. by 1690), with whom the genealogy below begins. The head of the family was distinguished by the honorific title 'The McAdam Barry", but again the origin and significance of this has been lost. 

Redmond Barry married twice and had one son by each marriage. The elder son, Col. James Barry (1659-1717), inherited the Rathcormac estate, to which the 'pocket borough' of Rathcormac was attached, allowing the family to have a seat in the Irish parliament whenever they wished. Col. James sat in the Jacobite parliament in Dublin in 1689 and as a result was outlawed after William III secured control of Ireland, but he subsequently made his peace with the new regime, and the outlawry was reversed so that he was able to return to parliament and to hold local office again. It was probably at this time that the family adopted the Protestant religion, although that is not certain. Col. Barry was succeeded at Rathcormac in turn by his sons James (1689-1743), who probably built or rebuilt Lisnagar House, and Redmond (1696-1750), but since none of his four sons produced any children, his estates passed in 1750 to the descendants of his half-brother, Redmond Barry (d. 1739). This Redmond had inherited his mother's family estate of Ballyclough at Kilworth (Co. Cork), which was clearly viewed as a lesser property, not least because it did not include a parliamentary seat. Ballyclough passed to Redmond's son, also Redmond Barry (c.1705-41), who did not long survive his father, and then to Redmond's son, James Barry (1739-93), who was then an infant and still very young when he also inherited the Rathcormac estate and Lisnagar House in 1750. The combination of the two properties gave the family a brief period of greater prosperity, reflected in the socially advantageous marriage of James's sister in 1752 to St. Leger Aldworth, later 1st Viscount Doneraile, and in his own marriage to an heiress. For reasons which are unclear, in 1775 the Lisnagar-Rathcormac estate was sold, leaving only the smaller Ballyclough property in the family's hands. On James' death, this descended to his elder son, Redmond Barry (c.1766-1812), a lawyer and agricultural improver, who played a leading role in the local militia during the troubled years of the late 1790s. When he died without issue, the estate passed to his younger brother, Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (1769-1838), who was a career soldier. 

At the time of his unexpected inheritance, Henry Green Barry was stationed in the West Indies, but he managed to arrange a transfer home by 1813, although he did not finally leave the army for several years afterwards. It was probably he who rebuilt Ballyclough House to provide accommodation for his large family of six boys and seven girls. When he died in 1838 he must have felt confident that the succession to the estate had been secured. However, none of his six sons produced any legitimate issue, although his third son, Sir Redmond Barry (1813-80) - who made a notable career as a judge, educationalist and librarian in Australia - sired four acknowledged illegitimate children. His son and heir, James Barry (1805-81), married Olivia Drew, who had inherited Mocollop Castle (Co. Waterford) from her brother in 1839, but they had no children. James seems to have struggled financially in the difficult years of the 1840s when the famine made rents difficult to maintain and to collect, and he fought a constant battle against damp at Ballyclough. In the end, he gave up trying to live there, and moved to his wife's house at Mocollop. When he died in 1881, Ballyclough passed to his younger brother, St. Leger Barry (1816-88), who was also childless. On his death, the estate passed to his great-nephew, James Robert Bury (1875-1963), who was the grandson of Henry Green Barry's eldest daughter, Letitia. As a condition of the inheritance, he took the additional name Barry by royal licence in 1889. He had been brought up in Kent, and as a young man had travelled widely. On his return to England he arranged for Ballyclough to be modernised, and a ballroom was added in 1904. In 1906 he married an English girl and brought her to live at Ballyclough, but the First World War took him away again and with the climax of the Irish struggle for independence he obviously decided that it was not safe for the family to remain in Ireland. Accordingly, he bought a modest house in Surrey to which the family moved in about 1918 or 1919, and Ballyclough was abandoned. Some sources report that it was burned by the IRA in 1920 but I have not been able to confirm this. At all events, the estate was subsequently sold and most of the house was demolished, leaving only the 1904 ballroom, which was converted into a modest house, reusing some salvaged elements of the remainder of the building. As a coda to this story, in 1934 Mrs Bury-Barry inherited Elvington Hall near York, and the family moved there from Surrey soon afterwards. Elvington was eventually sold in 1957.


Ballyclough House, Kilworth, Co. Cork


Ballyclough House, Kilworth: a Victorian photograph of the main front (Image: Irish Architectural Archive)
A mildly Gothic two-storey early 19th century house of seven bays, with gables, large and unconvincing battlements, casement windows under hoodmoulds, and a pair of buttresses framing the windows at either end, which was probably built (or rather rebuilt) for Sir Henry Green Barry after he retired from the army c.1820. The house is said to have suffered from an acute damp problem, and despite re-roofing and refurbishment in the 1850s or 1860s it is said to have been abandoned on that account in 1877. A further refurbishment took place after James Bury-Barry came of age in 1896, probably at the time when a ballroom was added in 1904. Major Bury-Barry was still resident in 1911 but later, when the Irish independence struggle led to increased violence against the Anglo-Irish community he moved back to England, and the house is said to have been used as a military garrison. One account says it was burnt by the IRA in 1920, but I have not been able to confirm that. Certainly the greater part of the house was pulled down in the mid 20th century, but the ballroom added in 1904 remains and has been converted into a house which includes an impressive neo-Jacobean staircase, no doubt salvaged from the demolished part of the building and much re-arranged.

Descent: Sir Nicholas Purdon, kt.; to grandson, Redmond Barry (d. 1739); to son, Redmond Barry (c.1705-41); to son, James Barry (1739-93); to son, Redmond Barry (c.1766-1812); to brother, Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (c.1769-1838); to son, James Barry (1805-81); to brother, St. Leger Barry (1816-88); to great-nephew, Maj. James Robert Bury (later Bury-Barry) (1875-1963)...


Lisnagar House, Rathcormac, Co. Cork


Lisnagar (often spelled Lisnegar until recent times) and Rathcormac belonged to the Barry family from the 13th century onwards, but nothing seems to be known of their house here before the 18th century, when it was rebuilt for either Col. James Barry (1659-1717) or more probably his son James (1689-1743). This building seems to comprise the central three bays of the south front of the present house, although the wing to its left may also be 18th century. 


Lisnagar, Rathcormac: the house at its maximum extent, in a watercolour by J.E. Bosanquet, c.1860.
In 1771 the estate was sold to William Tonson, a Cork banker, who perhaps acquired it chiefly for the associated parliamentary seat of Rathcormac, which he occupied until he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Riversdale in 1783. In the 1820s, his son, William Tonson (1775-1848), 2nd Baron Riversdale, enlarged the house and gave it a rambling Tudor-style appearance, probably to the designs of James & George R. Pain. The additions included a three-storey projecting wing on the left with a polygonal end elevation that rose into a shaped gable. The original house was flanked by wings that were given large castellated and mullioned canted bays, with wide dormer gables above. The centre block was also given gables and a big two-storey porch. Inside, the surviving 18th century rooms are low and plain, and there is a late 18th century staircase in a projection behind the hall. In 1909, when the house was advertised to let, it was noted that 'a large sum has recently been expended in remodelling the house and out-offices and making them both up to date', probably to the designs of W.H. Hill & Co. of Cork, but the three-storey range on the left side of the house was demolished in the mid 20th century. East of the house is a fine early 18th century tree-line T-shaped canal, which already existed and was 'stocked with fish' in 1750.


Lisnagar House in recent years. (Image: NIAH)
Descent: Redmond Barry (d. c.1690); to son, Col. James Barry (1659-1717); to son, James Barry (1689-1743); to brother, Redmond Barry (1696-1750); to half-cousin, once removed, James Barry (1739-93), who sold 1771 to William Tonson (1724-87), 1st Baron Riversdale; to son, William Tonson (1775-1848), 2nd Baron Riversdale; to brother, Rt. Rev. Ludlow Tonson (1784-1861), bishop of Killaloe & Clonfert, 3rd Baron Riversdale; to nephew, William Thomas Jonas Alcock-Stawell (later Alcock-Stawell-Riversdale) (1850-1900);  to father, William St. Leger Alcock-Stawell (c.1817-1907); to daughter, Esther Mary Alcock-Stawell (later Alcock-Stawell-Riversdale) (1858-1932), who sold by 1924 to Lt-Col. Douglas Thorne Seckham (d. 1937); sold to Maj. Merlin Gordon Lubbock (d. 1952); sold after his death to Maj. Timothy E. Hallinan (1923-74); sold c.1961 to Capt. John Meade; sold c.1970 to Mrs. Maureen F. Hogan (fl. 1982)... 


Elvington Hall, Yorkshire (ER)


A large brick-built house which is said to have Elizabethan or 17th century origins, although this is not apparent from the exterior, which seems entirely 18th century and later. The house had seven hearths in 1672. The north-facing entrance front is of two-and-a-half storeys, and has plain sash windows and a pedimented doorcase. The row of small windows under the eaves lighting an attic is perhaps the only sign that the house has pre-18th century origins. The late 18th century south front, overlooking the River Derwent, has three bays, with a pedimented doorcase in the centre, set within a round-arched recess and flanked by two-storey canted bays.  
Elvington Hall: the south front before the addition of the wing.
Elvington Hall: the south front after the addition of the wing in the 1900s.
To the right of this is a substantial wing, which consists of a continuation of the existing facade with a third two-storey canted bay, and then beyond it a recessed service wing. This has traditionally been dated to c.1920, but appears to be shown on the 6" Ordnance map surveyed in 1908. Inside the house, original features include neo-classical cornices and friezes, and contemporary woodwork in the rooms behind the left hand bay, and a plain modillion cornice in the hall and lobby. The drawing room has an imported early 19th century fireplace. The staircase was installed when the wing was added and has two column-on-vase balusters to each step. The house was recently used as an hotel, but is now a private house once more.

Descent: Crown leased to Eglesfield family in the 16th century; sold 1628... sold 1632 to Sir John Gibson and Ralph Radcliffe; sold 1646 to Sir Roger Jacques; to Roger Jacques; to daughter Mary, wife of Simon Sterne (fl. 1700)... Roger Sterne sold 1775 to John Ramsey (d. 1801); to nieces, Susannah Spence and Dorothy Garwood; sold by their children's trustees 1857 to Smith Wormald; sold 1876 to John Dobby; sold 1881 to Harriet Whitaker; to daughter Harriet (1855-1934), wife of William Trend Hamlyn Van Beverhoudt (1841-1909); to cousin, Judith Isabel (d. 1946/7), wife of Maj. J.R. Bury-Barry (1875-1963); sold 1957 to K. Wadham; sold 1962 to R.M. Pontefract (fl. 1972)...


Barry (later Bury-Barry) family of Ballyclough



Barry, Redmond (d. c.1690), the McAdam Barry. Parentage unknown. He married 1st, Mary, daughter of John Boyle of Castle Lyons (Co. Cork) and 2nd, 1666, Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Nicholas Purdon, kt., of Ballyclough, MP for Baltimore, and had issue:
(1.1) Col. James Barry (1659-1717) (q.v.);
(1.2) Anne Barry (c.1660-1737), born about 1660; married 1st, 1683, Capt. Samuel Hartwell (1645-93), who was killed at the Battle of Landen (Belgium), son of William Hartwell, mayor of Limerick, and had issue one son and two daughters; married 2nd, c.1696, Rev. William Jephson (c.1658-1720), Dean of Lismore* Cathedral, 1691-1720, son of Maj-Gen. John Jephson, and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Rathcormack, 18 October 1737 and was buried with her second husband at Lismore Cathedral;
(1.3) Catherine Barry (d. by 1693); married, c.1680, Alan Brodrick MP (c.1656-1728), 'one of the most outstanding Irish politicians of the 18th century', later created 1st Baron Brodrick and 1st Viscount Midleton (who m2, 1693, Lucy, third daughter of Sir Peter Courthope of Little Island (Co. Cork) and had further issue two sons and one daughter; and who m3, 1 December 1716, Anne, daughter of Sir John Trevor of Brynkinalt (Denbighs) and widow of Rt. Hon Michael Hill MP of Hillsborough (Co. Down)), and had issue one son; died before 1693;
(2.1) Redmond Barry (d. 1739) (q.v.);
(2.2) A daughter;
(2.3) A daughter.
He inherited Lisnagar and Rathcormac (Co. Cork).
He died between 1681 and 1690; his will was proved 23 March 1690. His first wife died before 1666. His second wife's date of death is unknown.
* Many sources call him Dean of Kilmore, a post which he may have held briefly in 1690-91.

Barry, Col. James (1659-1717), the McAdam Barry. Only son of Redmond Barry (d. c.1690) and his first wife, Mary, daughter of John Boyle of Castle Lyons (Co. Cork), born 1659. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1677). He was an officer in the army (Capt. by 1692; Col., c.1699). MP for Rathcormack, 1689, 1692-93, 1695-99, 1713-14 and for Dungarvan, 1703-13, 1715-17. He sat in the Jacobite parliament of 1689 and was outlawed as a result, but in 1692 he was allowed to bring a Writ of Error for the reversal of his outlawry. He was given the freedom of Cork City, 1697 and was made Deputy Governor of Co. Cork, 1699. He married 1st, Mary, daughter of Abraham Anselm of London, and 2nd, Susanna, daughter of John Townsend of Timoleague (Co. Cork) and granddaughter of the 2nd Earl of Barrymore, and had issue:
(1.1) James Barry (1689-1743) (q.v.);
(1.2) Redmond Barry (1696-1750) (q.v.);
(1.3) Mary Barry (d. 1750?); was bequeathed the Rathcormack estate by her brother Redmond, but Henrietta, the widow of Redmond Barry (d. 1741?) seized possession of it on behalf of her son under a claim of entail, which appears to have been sustained by the House of Lords; died unmarried, probably late in 1750;
(2.1) David Barry; doctor of medicine (MD); died without issue;
(2.2) Patrick Barry; doctor of medicine (MD): died without issue;
(2.3) Elizabeth Barry (d. 1772?); married, 1721/2, Noblett Dunscombe MP (1699-1745) of Mount Desart (Co. Cork), son of William Dunscombe, but had no issue; said to have died in January 1772;
(2.4) Katherine Barry (d. 1754); married, 1716, John Townshend (1691-1756) of Skirtagh, Clonakilty (Co. Cork), son of Col. Bryan Townshend, and had issue four sons and four daughters; died 20 December 1754.
He inherited Rathcormac and Lisnagar from his father in the 1680s.
He died in 1716/17; his will was proved in 1716/17. His first wife died after 1696. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, James (1689-1743), the McAdam Barry. Elder son of Col. James Barry (1659-1717) and his first wife Mary, daughter of Abraham Anselm of London, born 1689. Educated at Cork and Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1706). Whig MP in the Irish Parliament for Dungarvan, 1713-14, 1721-27 and Rathcormack, 1727-43. High Sheriff of Co. Cork, 1721; Clerk of the Pipe in the Irish Court of Exchequer, 1729-43. A foundation member of the Royal Dublin Society, 1733. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Lisnagar and Rathcormac from his father.
He died in 1743.

Barry, Redmond (1696-1750), the McAdam Barry. Younger son of Col. James Barry (1659-1717) and his first wife Mary, daughter of Abraham Anselm of London, baptised 16 September 1696. MP for Dungarvan, 1717-27 and Tallow, 1727-50; High Sheriff of Co. Cork, 1734. He married, 11 August 1727, Anne Smyth of Coolmore (Co. Cork), but had no issue.
He inherited Rathcormac and Lisnagar from his elder brother. At his death he attempted to bequeath the estate to his sister, but it passed to his half-cousin once removed, James Barry (1739-93) (q.v.), under an entail.
He died in 1750. His wife's date of death is unknown. 

---

Barry, Redmond (d. 1739). Only son of Redmond Barry (d. c.1690) and his second wife, Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Nicholas Purdon, kt., MP, of Ballyclough, born after 1666. He married, 1700, a daughter of George Crofts of Velvetstown (Co. Cork) and had issue, possibly among others:
(1) Redmond Barry (c.1705-41) (q.v.);
(2) Nicholas Barry;
(3) Thomas Barry;
(4) Judith Barry;
(5) Deborah Barry.
He inherited Ballyclough from his maternal grandfather.
His will was proved in 1739. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, Redmond (c.1705-41). Only son of Redmond Barry (d. 1739) and his wife Mary Anne, daughter of George Crofts of Velvetstown (Co. Cork), born about 1705. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1724/5). He married, 1732, Henrietta (c.1703-69?), second daughter of William Dunscombe of Mount Desart (Co. Cork), and had issue:
(1) Mary Catherine Barry (c.1733-78), born about 1733; married, 1752, St. Leger Aldworth (later St. Leger), 1st Viscount Doneraile (c.1715-87), second son of Richard Aldworth MP (1694-1776) of Newmarket Court, and had issue seven sons and seven daughters; died 3 March 1778 and was buried at Doneraile (Co. Cork);
(2) James Barry (1739-93) (q.v.);
(3) Katherine Barry;
(4) Judith Barry.
He inherited Ballyclough from his father in 1739.
His will was proved in Dublin in 1741. His widow was living in 1765; according to one source she died about 1769.

Barry, James (1739-93), the McAdam Barry. Only son of Redmond Barry (c.1705-41) and his wife Henrietta, second daughter of William Dunscombe of Mount Desart (Co. Cork), said to have been born in Co. Fermanagh, 1739. Educated at Kilkenny College (admitted 1754), and Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1757). He succeeded his half-cousin once removed as the McAdam Barry in 1750. MP for Rathcormack in the Irish Parliament, 1768-76. He married, March 1765, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Abraham Green of Ballymacreese (Co. Limerick), and had issue including:
(1) Redmond Barry (c.1766-1812) (q.v.);
(2) Elizabeth Arabella Barry (c.1767-1854), born in France about 1767; lived at The Cottage, Malvern Wells (Worcs), where she enjoyed frequent visits from her younger brother's children; died unmarried, Apr-Jun 1854; will proved 2 November 1854;
(3) Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (1769-1838) (q.v.).
He inherited Ballyclough from his father in 1741, and Rathcormack and Lisnagar from his cousin in 1750. He sold Rathcormack to William Tonson in 1775.
He died in Bath (Som.), 25 October 1793. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, Redmond (c.1766-1812), the McAdam Barry. Elder son of James Barry (1739-93) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Abraham Green of Ballymachree (Co. Limerick). Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1783; BA 1787; LLB 1792) and Kings Inns (called 1792). Barrister-at-law. An officer in the South Cork militia (Lt-Col.). He was interested in agricultural improvement, and was one of the landowners who supported an initiative to establish a manufactory for improved agricultural machinery in Ireland, 1803. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Ballyclough from his father in 1793.
He died 'of fever' at Boyle (Co. Roscommon), 16 February 1812; his will was proved in 1814.

Barry, Maj-Gen. Henry Green (1769-1838), the McAdam Barry. Second son of James Barry (1739-93) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Abraham Green of Ballymachree (Co. Limerick), born 1769. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1789; Lt., 1791; Capt., 1794; Maj., 1800; Lt-Col., 1801; Col., 1810; Maj-Gen., 1813; retired by 1820), who saw service in Canada, Ireland and the West Indies; High Sheriff of Co. Cork, 1821-22. He married, 21 September 1804, Phoebe (c.1786-1869), daughter of John Armstrong Drought of Lettybrook (Co. Offaly), and had issue:
(1) James Barry (1805-81) (q.v.);
(2) Letitia Elizabeth Barry (1806-47) (q.v.);
(3) Elizabeth Phoebe Barry (1808-83), born at Lillybrook (Co. Offaly), 11 August 1808 and received into the RC church at Glanworth, 13 February 1818; lived with her aunt at The Cottage, Great Malvern (Worcs) until 1848 and was the primary beneficiary of her will; married, 15 March 1849 at St Peter, Dale End, Birmingham, Henry Murray Simpson (c.1826-88)* (who m2, 8 August 1883, Harriet (b. 1855), landlady of the Albion Tavern, Cheltenham, daughter of James Taylor of Cheltenham, french polisher), steward in the merchant navy, possibly the son of Rev. Douglas Murray Simpson (who has not been identified), and had issue one son (who died young in 1862); some years after the death of their son, they took in another boy whose parents were emigrating to America, until they should send for the child, but in 1876, when this had not happened and they had 'got tired of the boy', he was sent to the Cheltenham workhouse**; she died 5 March 1883; administration of goods granted, 17 May 1884 (effects in England, £2,225 and in Ireland, £2,000);
(4) Capt. Henry Barry (1811-53), born in Grenada, 20 June 1811 and received into the RC church at Glanworth, 13 February 1818; an officer in the Indian army (Cadet 1827; Ensign, 1827; Lt., 1830; Capt., 1845); died unmarried when he was ambushed near Prome (Burma), 28 December 1853; buried at Prome Cemetery; will proved 19 June 1858 (effects under £1,500);
(5) Sir Redmond Barry (1813-80), kt., born 7 June and baptised at Glanworth RC church, 15 August 1813; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1832; BA 1837; LLD) and Kings Inns (called 1838); emigrated to Australia, 1839; solicitor general for Victoria, 1850; senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria (Australia), 1851-80, in which capacity he is best known for sentencing Ned Kelly to death in 1880; a noted educationalist, he was inaugural Chancellor of University of Melbourne, 1855-77 and president of Melbourne Public Library, 1856-80; knight bachelor, 1860 and KCMG, 1877; 'one of the most energetic and able colonists, and a truly courteous gentleman'; he was unmarried, but had three sons and one daughter by his partner Louisa Bridget Barrow (1823-89), all of whom he acknowledged; died 23 November 1880;
(6) Caroline Henrietta Barry (1815-72), born in Limerick, 29 April 1815 and received into the RC church at Glanworth, 13 February 1818; lived with her mother in Bristol and later at Bellevue Terrace, Cork; died unmarried, 1 April 1872; administration of goods granted to her eldest brother, 29 April 1873 (effects in Ireland, under £4,000 and in England under £1,500);
(7) St. Leger Barry (1816-88) (q.v.);
(8) Katherine Judith Barry (1818-73), baptised at Glanworth RC church, 13 February 1818; married, 17 September 1840 at Glanworth (Co. Cork), Lt-Col. Edward Osborne Broadley (1803-67), and had issue six sons and four daughters; died at Belleview Terrace, Cork, 6 February 1873; administration of goods granted 15 October 1873 (estate under £1,500);
(9) John Richard alias John Henry Barry (1819-47), born 31 October and baptised at Glanworth RC church, 26 November 1819; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1838; Lt., 1842); died unmarried at Coloba, Bombay (India), and was buried there, 1 September 1847;
(10) Phoebe Maria Barry (1821-42), baptised at Glanworth RC church, 20 October 1821; died unmarried, January 1842;
(11) Charlotte Barry (1823-1900), baptised at Glanworth RC church, 29 April 1823; married 1st, 9 March 1865 at Christ Church, Clifton (Glos), as his second wife, John Carroll (1789-1875) of Notting Hill (Middx), barrister-at-law, son of Edward Carroll, solicitor, and 2nd, 26 April 1887 at St Matthew, Cheltenham (Glos), Thomas Grier (1815-98), language tutor, son of Henry Grier, farmer; died without issue in Bristol, 12 November, and was buried at Cheltenham Cemetery, 15 November 1900; will proved 8 December 1900 (estate £1,190);
(12) Louisa Octavia Barry (1825-45), baptised at Glanworth RC church, 2 December 1825; died unmarried, 11 January, and was buried at Monkstown (Co. Dublin), 16 January 1845;
(13) Maj-Gen. William Wigram Barry (1827-83), baptised at Glanworth RC church, 28 May 1827; an officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1846; Lt., 1846; Capt., 1854; Maj., 1855; Lt-Col., 1858; Col., 1866; Maj-Gen., 1880; retired on half-pay, 1882); he served in the Crimea, 1854-55 (appointed CB); in India, 1857-58, where he was present at the relief of Lucknow; and in China, 1860; died unmarried at Hotel Royale, Naples, 19 April, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 9 May 1883; will proved in Dublin, 7 June 1883 (estate in Ireland, £19,838 and in England, £5,132).
He inherited Ballyclough from his elder brother in 1812, and probably rebuilt it about the time he retired from the army, c.1820.
He died at Ballyclough, 13 May 1838; his will was proved in Dublin in 1838. His widow died in Bristol, 5 May 1869; her will was proved 7 June 1869 (effects under £1,500).
* Henry Murray Simpson is a man of some mystery. See 'Can you help' below.
** The case was discussed by the Board of Guardians, who said that the workhouse master was wrong to admit him, although since this had been done, they could not then refuse to maintain him. During his time with the Murray Simpsons, the boy had been 'kept as a gentleman's son'.

Barry, James (1805-81), the McAdam Barry. Eldest son of Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (1769-1838) and his wife Phoebe, daughter of John Armstrong Drought of Lettybrook (Co. Offaly), born in Barbadoes, 28 July 1805 and received into the RC church at Glanworth, 13 February 1818. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1823; Lt., 1826; Capt., 1833; retired c.1839). JP and DL (from 1855) for Co. Cork; High Sheriff of Co. Cork, 1841-42. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the Liberal interest in Co. Cork in 1852 and 1857. He married, 2 March 1841 at St. Anne, Dublin, Olivia Maria (1820-84), daughter and sole heiress of Francis Drew of Mocollop Castle (Co. Waterford), but had no issue.
He inherited Ballyclough from his father in 1838 but is said to have given up living there in 1877 because of damp problems. At his death it passed to his younger brother, St. Leger Barry. His wife inherited Mocollop Castle from her brother in 1839; at her death it passed to distant cousins, although her second husband probably had a life interest since he died at Mocollop in 1895.
James died at Mocollop Castle, 30 April 1881; his will was proved 31 August 1881 (effects £22,500). His widow married 2nd, 27 September 1883 at Mocollop, Lt-Col. George Edward Hillier CB (1820-95), Inspector-General of Royal Irish Constabulary; she died of typhoid fever at Mocollop Castle, 25 November 1884 and her will was proved 19 February 1885 (effects £7,153).

Barry, St. Leger (1816-88), the McAdam Barry. Fourth son of Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (1769-1838) and his wife Phoebe, daughter of John Armstrong Drought of Lettybrook (Co. Offaly), born in Limerick, 29 June 1816 and received into the RC church at Glanworth, 13 February 1818. An officer in the 65th foot (Ensign, 1835; Lt., 1839; Capt., 1844; retired by 1854) and the North Cork Rifles (Capt. 1854). JP for Co. Cork; member of the Lismore Board of Guardians. He had poor relations with his tenants, and was the subject of a boycott organised by the Land League in 1886. He married, 14 November 1883 at Roslin Chapel (Midlothian), Mary Caroline Therese (b. 1859), second daughter of George Carr, but had no issue.
St. Leger inherited Ballyclough from his elder brother in 1881. At his death it passed to his great-nephew, Maj. James Robert Bury-Barry.
He died 7 July 1888; his will was proved 25 September 1888 (effects £2,724). His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, Letitia Elizabeth (1806-47). Eldest daughter of Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (d. 1838) and his wife Phoebe, daughter of John Armstrong Drought of Lettybrook (Co. Offaly), born in Barbadoes, 8 August 1806 and received into the RC church at Glanworth, 13 February 1818. She married, 21 May 1835 at Glanworth (Co. Cork), Rev. Robert Bury (c.1780-1853) of Carrigrenane (Co. Cork), an enthusiastic yachtsman who was curate of Carrigtwohill, c.1803-24 and prebendary of Coole, 1824-53, second son of Phineas Bury of Little Island, and had issue:
(1) Phineas Henry Bury (1836-53), born April 1836; died at sea, 24 May 1853;
(2) Phoebe Hester Jane Bury (1837-1923). born September 1837; married, 4 May 1861 at Rathcooney (Co. Cork), General Robert Pratt CB (1815-86), third son of Rev. Robert Pratt, prebendary of Desertmore (Co. Cork), and had issue five sons and two daughters; died at Churchdown (Glos), 26 May 1923; administration of goods granted to her son, 23 July 1923 (estate £113);
(3) Elizabeth Charlotte Bury (1839-40), born 16 July 1839; died in infancy, 9 March 1840;
(4) Robert Bury (1840-80) (q.v.);
(5) Letitia Elizabeth Bury (1842-1905). born 4 July 1842; married, 14 August 1862 at Rathcooney, Capt. Richard Pennefather Going JP (1821-72), of Ballynonty House (Tipp.), second son of Ambrose Going of Ballyphilip (Co. Tipp.), but had no issue; died at Tain (Ross & Cromarty), 10 March 1905; will proved 10 August 1905 (estate £4,350);
(6) Hester Beatrice Bury (1843-1913), born 1 August 1843; married 1st, 4 May 1861 at Glanworth (Co. Cork), Capt. Francis Robert Fox (d. 1864) of Kinawley (Co. Fermanagh), fourth son of Rev. John James Fox, but had no issue; married 2nd, 16 February 1865 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Maj-Gen. George de la Poer Beresford (1830-1913) of Madras Staff Corps, eldest son of Rev. George de la Poer Beresford of Fenagh (Co. Leitrim), and had issue one son and two daughters; died in London, 9 May 1913; administration of goods granted 21 February 1914 (estate £390); 
(7) twin, Col. John Thomas Bury (1844-1928), born 4 August 1844; an officer in the Royal Artillery, 1865-97 (Lt., 1865; Capt., 1877; Maj., 1884; Lt. Col., 1891; Col. 1896); ADC to General Primrose in 1876; died unmarried, 22 February 1928; will proved 8 May 1928 (estate £5,894);
(8) twin, Charlotte Mary Bury (1844-1935), born 4 August 1844; married, 8 October 1864 at St Ann, Dublin, Capt. Crofton Toler Vandeleur (1840-84), second son of Col. Crofton Moore Vandeleur of Kilrush (Co. Clare) and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 31 October 1935.
After her marriage, she lived at Killora Lodge and later at Carrigrenane (Co. Cork), which her husband gave up in 1852.
She died in April 1847. Her husband died at Harmony Lodge, Belfast, in March 1853.

Bury, Robert (1840-80). Elder son of Rev. Robert Bury (c.1780-1853) and his wife Letitia Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry, born 9 November 1840. An officer in the 7th Dragoon Guards (Cornet, 1858; Lt., 1860; Capt., 1866; retired in 1868); Captain and Adjutant of the West Kent Yeomanry Cavalry, 1870-80; Chairman of the Folkestone Waterworks Co. He married, 25 August 1869 at Folkestone (Kent), Anna Maria (1845-1914), daughter of Richard Hart, and had issue:
(1) Letitia Mary Bury (1870-1953), baptised at Wateringbury, 27 July 1870; married, 17 November 1896 at Christ Church, Purley (Surrey), Maj. Norman Atkinson Layton (1866-1929) of Chichester (Sussex), son of James Norman Layton of Claremont (Norfk), and had issue two daughters; died 10 February 1953; will proved 1 June 1953 (estate £8,804);
(2) Maj. James Robert Bury (later Bury-Barry) (1875-1963) (q.v.).
He lived at Wateringbury (Kent).
He died at Wateringbury, 1 April 1880, and was buried at Cheriton Road Cemetery, Folkestone; his will was proved 24 April 1880. His widow married 2nd, 29 April 1891 at Denton (Kent), Capt. James Richard Broadley RN (1849-1917) and died 13 December 1914; her will was proved 20 April 1915 (estate £23,806).


Maj. J.R. Bury-Barry
Bury (later Bury-Barry), Maj. James Robert (1875-1963), the McAdam Barry. Only son of Robert Bury (1840-80) and his wife Anna Maria, daughter of Richard Hart, born 3 January and baptised at Wateringbury (Kent), 17 February 1875. Educated at Wellington School. He succeeded his great-uncle as the McAdam Barry in 1888 and took the additional name of Barry by royal licence, 12 January 1889. As a young man, he travelled widely, visiting Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Ceylon, Burma, Java, the South Sea Islands, and Egypt. JP and DL for Co. Cork; High Sheriff of Co. Cork, 1910-11. An officer in the Limerick City Artillery (2nd Lt., 1894; Lt. 1894; retired 1897) and served in First World War (Lt., 1914; Inspector of Quatermaster General's Services, 1916, with the rank of Major); appointed OBE, 1919. He married, 3 October 1906 at Anlaby (Yorks ER), Judith Isabel (1886-1946), only daughter of William Ringrose Ringrose-Voase JP of Anlaby House, and had issue:
(1) Nesta Anne Bury-Barry (1909-2004), born 22 October 1909; married, 20 April 1932 at Cranleigh (Surrey), Maj. Robert Edward Barclay (1906-59), managing director of Barclay Perkins & Co., brewers, 1950-55, eldest son of Lt-Col. Robert Wyvill Barclay of Bury Hill, Dorking (Surrey) and had issue two daughters; died 5 May 2004; will proved 13 September 2004;
(2) Felicity Bury-Barry (1913-48), born 29 January and baptised at Holy Trinity, Chelsea, 22 February 1913; married, 17 November 1939, Brig. John Ormsby Evelyn Vandeleur DSO (1903-88), only son of Lt-Col. Crofton Bury Vandeleur DSO, but had no issue; died 28 April 1948 and was buried at Elvington, where she is commemorated by a monument carved by Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson.
He inherited Ballyclough from his great-uncle in 1888 and was living there in 1911, but at the time of the Irish war of independence he moved to England and bought Redhurst, Cranleigh (Surrey). His wife inherited Elvington Hall (Yorks) in 1935 and they lived there until her death. Elvington was sold in 1957 and he lived subsequently at Logmore Green, Westcott, Dorking (Surrey) on his son-in-law's estate.
He died 12 September 1963; his will was proved 5 March 1964 (estate £37,679). His wife died 12 October 1946; will proved 7 February 1947 (estate in England £51,759 and in Northern Ireland, £562).


Principal sources


Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1958, pp. 57-58; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn., 1990, pp. 20, 187; Sir N. Pevsner & D. Neave, The buildings of England: Yorkshire - York and the East Riding, 2nd edn., 1995, p. 405; E.M. Johnson-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament, 1692-1800, 2002, vol. 3, pp. 139-43; F. Keohane, The buildings of Ireland: Cork - city and county, 2020, pp. 551-52.


Location of archives


No significant accumulation is known to survive.


Coat of arms


Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Barry of six argent and gules; 2nd and 3rd, vert a cross-crosslet or, in chief a crescent argent for difference.


Can you help?


  • Can anyone provide more information about Ballyclough in the 20th century, and in particular any evidence of whether the house was burnt in 1920 as is sometimes claimed?
  • Can anyone provide fuller information about the ownership history of Lisnagar in the 20th century?
  • Does anyone know more about the training or careers of Col. James Barry's two sons by his second marriage, who are said both to have been physicians?
  • Can anyone provide more information about Henry Murray Simpson (c.1826-88), who married Elizabeth Phoebe Barry in 1849? His marriage certificate calls him simply 'Murray Simpson' and gives his occupation as 'steward'. His father is there said also to be 'Murray Simpson', occupation 'butler'. The 1881 census calls him 'Henry M. Simpson' and says he was formerly in the merchant navy, which seems consistent with this. However, other censuses describe him as 'gentleman' or 'fundholder'. All censuses agree he was born in Edinburgh or Scotland. A newspaper report of his son's death says his father was 'the Rev. Douglas Murray Simpson', but no such person can be identified. The Rev. Donald Murray Simpson, who stayed at Henry's house in Cheltenham in 1862, was perhaps his brother, and can be identified as the minister of Acharacle. 
  • I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
  • As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 20 April and was updated 23 April 2020.

Saturday 11 April 2020

(412) Barrow of Ringwood Hall, Sydnope Hall, Normanton Hall and Holmewood

Barrow of Sydnope Hall
This family can be traced back to a family of yeomen farmers in Westmorland and adjoining parts of Yorkshire and Cumberland. John Barrow (1713-1800), who farmed at Howgill near Sedbergh (Yorks WR) took advantage of having a well-known grammar school on his doorstep and sent his two eldest sons there, and then to university. The elder, the Rev. Richard Barrow (1747-1838), went to Cambridge, while his younger brother, the Ven. William Barrow (1754-1836), went to Oxford. William became Headmaster of the Soho Square Academy in London but made his name by publishing a series of lectures he delivered at Oxford in 1799 and then a treatise on education in 1802. In 1815 he joined his elder brother at Southwell (Notts) when he became a prebendary of the Minster there, and in 1830 he was appointed Archdeacon of Nottingham, although he was obliged by ill-health to resign two years later.  His brother Richard, who was a Vicar Choral at Southwell for sixty-four years, was one of the great pluralists of the late Georgian age, holding four rich livings in addition to his post at the Minster. He had five sons and four daughters, from whom this gentry family descend. 

Richard's two eldest sons, George Hodgkinson Barrow (1779-1853) and William Hodgson Barrow (1784-1876) were trained as solicitors, but although both of them practiced for many years, their principal focus moved on to other matters. William retired from practice in 1833 and lived quietly as a gentleman in Southwell until in 1851, at an age when most men are fully retired, he stood for Parliament in the south Nottinghamshire constituency. He was a anti-free trade Conservative, and the bitterly contested election he fought was against another man of the same views, Lord Newark. The difference between them was that Barrow represented the tenant farmers' interest, while Lord Newark stood for the landlords' interest. In the end, Barrow won by eleven votes, and he was thereafter re-elected unopposed until he retired at the age of 89, having for a long time been the oldest sitting member of the house. His brother George married in 1805 and acquired an interest in a small iron foundry as a result. From 1811 he was the sole proprietor and over the next thirty years he developed the business into a large coal mining and ironmaking business known as the Staveley Ironworks. Until the late 1820s he was based in Southwell and commuted to Staveley to manage the ironworks, but this was tiring and time-consuming, and in 1829-31 he leased a piece of land near the ironworks from the Duke of Devonshire and built Ringwood Hall to provide him with a base close to the ironworks.

The next two sons of the Rev. Richard Barrow, Richard (1787-1865) and John (1790-1871) became merchants trading with Spain and Portugal (and later with China). Richard managed the London end of the operation while John lived in Bilbao (Spain) and looked after their Iberian interests. By 1840 they had made a sufficient fortune and John, at least, wished to retire. The business was sold and with his share of the capital, John bought the Normanton Hall estate at Southwell, where he could be close to William. Richard was perhaps less keen to retire, for he used his share of the capital to buy the Staveley Ironworks from his brother George. Over the next twenty years he grew the business eightfold and in 1863 he converted it into a limited company, receiving £600,000 for the shares which he sold at incorporation, even though he retained a large stake. When he died childless in 1865, the chairmanship was taken over by John until his death in 1871, but the real control passed to Charles Markham (1823-88), whom Richard had head-hunted to join the firm as managing director in 1863. John's son, John James Barrow (1829-1903) and his sons, John Burton Barrow (1855-1914) and Leonard Norman Barrow (1861-1932) were directors, but never had a controlling interest in the business.

Trade card of George Hodgkinson Barrow (1779-1853) of the Staveley Ironworks, with a depiction of the works.
George Hodgkinson Barrow was probably willing to sell the Staveley Ironworks to his brother Richard in 1840 because neither of his sons was interested in taking over the business. The elder, the Rev. George William Barrow (1806-57), was a clergyman who did not long survive his father, and the younger, Richard Bridgeman Barrow (1809-76), was a solicitor in Southwell, who showed no interest in industry. After George Hodgkinson Barrow died, Ringwood Hall was either sold or bequeathed to his brother Richard, who had the same need of a local base as had caused George to build it in the first place. To replace it, Richard Bridgeman Barrow eventually bought Sydnope Hall at Darley Dale near Matlock. This property descended to his son, Bridgeman Langdale Barrow (1844-1922), who was also a solicitor, and who lived here until his death, but his son, Cecil Bridgeman Barrow (1883-1962) could not afford to occupy it and sold it in 1939.

Richard Barrow (1787-1865) died childless and very rich. The probate valuation of his estate (which excluded real property) was £500,000 and contemporary estimates said he was a millionaire. The bulk of his fortune, together with Ringwood Hall, seems to have passed to his nephew, John James Barrow (1829-1903), who had interests in a range of businesses, both in the UK and on the continent. He gradually expanded his property portfolio, buying the Holmewood estate near Tunbridge Wells (Kent) in 1874 and then Normanton Hall from his father's trustees in 1889. He also had a town house in London, and in 1896 he built a holiday home called Northfield at Dornoch in Sutherland. There seems to be some evidence that his second wife, Dorothea May Barrow (1849-1935), did not get on very well with the children of his first marriage, who were only a few years younger than her. His acquisition of several properties allowed him to provide generously for her (she received the London house, Holmewood and Northfield), while providing separate establishments for his sons John Burton Barrow (1855-1914), who inherited Ringwood Hall, and Leonard Norman Barrow (1861-1932), who inherited Normanton Hall.  His daughter and another son who was a clergyman, received cash legacies, while a fourth son, who had been bankrupted in 1897 and was regarded as financially incompetent, got a much smaller cash legacy. The only son of his second marriage, Charles Deans Barrow (1875-1944), is said to have bought the Farmington Lodge estate in Gloucestershire in 1901, and the funds for this purchase no doubt came from his father. He was a career army officer and does not seem to have lived at Farmington until 1919. 
Farmington Lodge: the house as altered by Charles D. Barrow.


The house at Farmington was later sold, although parts of the estate remain in the possession of his descendants. Dorothea sold Northfield in 1921, and Holmewood was sold after her death. John Burton Barrow sold Ringwood Hall in 1910 to Charles Paxton Markham (1865-1926), who succeeded his father as managing director of the Staveley Coal and Iron Co., and then moved to Apsley Guise (Beds). Normanton Hall remained in the possession of Leonard Barrow's widow and children until the Second World War, and although it was then sold, it was sold subject to the sitting tenancy of Leonard's daughter Marjory Barrow (1895-1957), which ended only when she inherited a property in Rutland from a spinster aunt in 1950.


Ringwood Hall, Staveley, Derbyshire

A rectangular two-storey five-by-three-bay stone house, built in about 1829-31 for George Hodgkinson Barrow (1779-1853), a partner in the Staveley Ironworks, on land which he leased from the Duke of Devonshire. The house is surrounded on the south and east sides by a pretty veranda supported on coupled Ionic columns, which are echoed in the porte-cochère on the entrance front to the north. On the west side is a long two-storey service range which is lower than, and slightly recessed from, the main south front. Inside, the house has a fine stuccoed entrance hall, a cantilevered staircase with a delicate wrought-iron balustrade, and some good marble chimneypieces. 


Ringwood Hall: the garden front in 1904, showing the attached conservatory on the left.
When the house passed to Richard Barrow (1787-1865) in 1853, he laid out the gardens and erected glasshouses between 1853 and 1865.
Ringwood Hall: the great conservatory built between 1853 and 1865.
These included a 70-foot long conservatory attached to the house and an even more magnificent one, 220 feet long, with a domed octagonal centre, which dominated the formal gardens south-west of the house. The conservatories were filled with carefully tended exotics which were obviously Barrow's pride and joy. He exhibited flowers and fruit at local horticultural shows (alongside the Duke of Devonshire) and opened his gardens to small parties and to his workmen and their families on Sundays. This tradition was maintained after the house was sold in 1910 to another director of the Staveley Ironworks, Charles Paxton Markham, whose father had been head-hunted by Richard Barrow to join the Staveley Iron Co., and had married one of Joseph Paxton's daughters. Markham eventually donated Ringwood Hall to the Staveley Iron & Steel Co. for the benefit of the employees. As a result, the house became one of the assets of British Steel after nationalisation, and was used as a clubhouse for steel workers. As numbers working in the industry dropped it was opened to the general public, and in 1996 it was sold off and converted into an hotel.



Ringwood Hall: the entrance front today.
Descent: George Hodgkinson Barrow (1779-1853); to brother, Richard Barrow (1787-1865); to nephew, John James Barrow (1829-1903); to son, John Burton Barrow (1855-1914), who sold 1910 to Charles Paxton Markham (1865-1926), who bequeathed it to the Staveley Iron & Steel Co.; nationalised as part of British Steel; sold 1996 for conversion to an hotel.


Sydnope Hall, Derbyshire


Originally a late Tudor farmhouse which was part of the Holt House estate. In 1827 it was bought by Sir Francis Sacheverell Darwin (1786-1859), kt., the physician son of Erasmus Darwin and uncle of Charles Darwin. He greatly enlarged and wholly remodelled the house in the Tudor style, reputedly to the designs of 'J. Barron Wright', who seems to be otherwise unrecorded and I suspect may never have existed. In 1832 he inherited Breadsall Priory and he thereafter transferred much of his time and energy to that property, which he occupied permanently from 1847 until his death in 1859. His alterations to Sydnope turned it into a long low two-storey house with an irregular battlemented south front composed of several different blocks, all with sash windows under hoodmoulds, and a plain three-storey tower at the left-hand end. 


Sydnope Hall: the house seen across the valley. The two blocks on the left are modern additions, 'keeping in keeping'.
The interior was once very impressive, and contained Darwin's collections of fossils, coins and Greek antiquities, as well as paintings and objets de vertu. It also housed a notable Blue John chimneypiece, the design of which has been attributed to Joseph Pickford and George Moneypenny, and which was probably carved by Richard Brown: this was stolen or removed from the house during its conversion to apartments in 1989 and subsequently sold and resold. By 1829 the gardens were 'tastefully laid out with fountains, grottoes, harbours [sic] etc.', to the designs of Sir Francis himself, although it is possible that later alterations to the grounds were made with the advice of Joseph Paxton, who is reputed to have been involved here. Other features of the grounds include Sydnope Stand, an eyecatcher tower (now converted into a cottage), a 16 acre lake (which was later adapted to become Flash Reservoir) and naturalistic streams and waterfalls, which can still be appreciated today.

After Sir Francis' death, Sydnope was sold to Richard Bridgeman Barrow, who made further changes to the house, probably including the addition of the battlemented porch. The Barrows maintained the gardens, which in 1874 were described in detail in the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener.  A formal terrace adjoining the house was then dominated by a five-tiered fountain, and there were elaborate flower beds filled with bedding plants like the displays in a contemporary urban park. Following the death of Bridgeman Langdale Barrow in 1922, the family moved to nearby Moor House, and Sydnope was put up for sale. However, it did not attract a buyer, and the house stood unoccupied and decaying for the best part of two decades, before being bought in 1939 by Charles Boot of Thornbridge Hall, who repaired it, although he also removed three tiers of the fountain on the terrace to his own house. Whatever his original intentions for the property had been, in 1943 he made it over to Sheffield City Council for use as an elderly people's home, a purpose which it served until the mid 1980s. The Council were probably responsible for the further addition of two large blocks at the western end of the house, of two and three storeys respectively. Although simply detailed, these sufficiently echo the style of the original house to be mistaken at a quick glance for old work; the three-storey block even has battlements. After it closed, the house was sold to developers who converted it into apartments without much sympathy for the original fabric. As a result, there are said to be no surviving historic interiors of interest.

Descent: Samuel Wood sold 1827 to Sir Frances Sacheverel Darwin (1786-1859), kt.; sold after his death to Richard Bridgeman Barrow (1809-76); to son, Bridgeman Langdale Barrow (1844-1922); to son, Cecil Bridgeman Barrow (1883-1962), who sold 1939 to Charles Boot; given 1943 to Sheffield City Council; sold c.1988 for redevelopment as apartments.


Holmewood, Langton Green, Kent


A substantial late classical mansion, built to the designs of Decimus Burton in 1827 on a ridge that is now studded with 19th century seats, for J. Carruthers, and at first called Mitchells. It burned down in 1837 but had been rebuilt to an amended design by 1844 for Sir Charles Locock, physician and gynaecologist to Queen Victoria. who changed the name to Holmewood. It is not clear whether Decimus Burton was involved in the redesign, or how different the present house is to the one that he first built. 


Holmewood: entrance front
The house is a two-storey block, seven bays by five. The entrance front to the north has a porte-cochère with pairs of rather stumpy Greek Doric columns, but otherwise the detail is moving away from the Greek Revival towards the Italianate. The parapet has sunk panels recessed in two stages and this motif is repeated in the panels below the first-floor windows. On the south front the central three bays are brought forward as a semicircular bow window. Inside, light reaches the narrow central hall from an oval skylight via an oval oculus, a version on a smaller scale of the arrangement Burton used at Holwood, Keston (Kent).


Holmewood: garden front
Holmewood: plan of the estate in 1869 from the 1st edition OS 6" map.
The house was sold in about 1850 to John Heugh, who in turn sold in 1874 to John James Barrow (1829-1903), who was waxing rich on the profits of the Staveley Ironworks in Derbyshire and built up a portfolio of estates across the country of which Holmewood was the most southerly. At his death he bequeathed the house and most of his estate to his widow, Dorothea May Barrow (d. 1935). After she died the house was empty until it was let to The Hill School for Girls on the outbreak of the Second World War. At the end of the war, when the school returned to its usual premises, the Barrow family sold the house to John and Mary Collings, who founded Holmewood Preparatory School in 1945. The school remains in occupation today.

Descent: built for J. Carruthers; to Sir Charles Locock (1799-1875), 1st bt.; sold c.1850 to John Heugh; sold 1874 to John James Barrow (1829-1903); to widow, Dorothea May Barrow (1849-1935)... leased 1939 to The Hill School for Girls; sold 1945 to John and Mary Collings, who founded Holmewood Preparatory School.



Normanton Hall, Southwell, Nottinghamshire


Normanton Hall, Southwell: the entrance front, set at right-angles to the street. Image: Alan Murray-Rust. Some rights reserved.

A mid 19th century Gothic Revival house, looking very much like a generous Victorian rectory, which incorporates part of the predecessor house (of which nothing seems to be known). It is built of red and yellow brick with stone dressings and has a gabled roof with traceried bargeboards. The entrance front, set at right-angles to the road, has two gables, a central two-storey porch and hood moulds to the windows. The garden front has three irregular gables, a short wing to its left, and very varied windows: a canted bay, window in a shallow recess with a basket-shaped head and a first-floor window with a stepped head. 

In 1887, when the house was offered for sale, it was described as 'a choice compact modern residence' and as 'substantially built and of modern erection'. It consisted of an entrance hall, dining room, drawing room, morning room and study, together with fifteen bedrooms and service accommodation. Exactly when the house was rebuilt is, however, a bit of a mystery. The statutory list and Pevsner suggest a date of c.1870 on stylistic grounds, but historically the most probable time for its construction would be the 1840s, when John Barrow (1790-1871) bought it on retiring from business. Could the house be this early? The years immediately around 1870 seem unlikely, since John Barrow was then an old man, and after he died in 1871 the house was let until 1887.



Normanton Hall, Southwell: garden front.
In 1889 John James Barrow (1829-1903) purchased Normanton from his father's executors as a home for his second son, Maj. Leonard Newman Barrow (1861-1932), whose widow and daughters continued to live here until the Second World War. During the war, it was used as a residential school for deaf children, and afterwards it was sold, subject to the sitting tenancy of Miss M.G. Barrow (1895-1957). She inherited a property in Rutland in 1950 and moved there, and it has since been sold several times.

Descent: Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington...John Barrow (d. 1871), who rebuilt the house? but let it from 1874 to Capt. Thomas Francis Rolt to 1882 and then J.E.F. Chambers (to 1887); sold to John James Barrow (1829-1903); to Maj. Leonard Newman Barrow (1861-1932); used during WW2 as a residential school for deaf children; sold to William Milligan (d. 1947), MD of John Player & Sons; sold after his death to Maj. William Foster (d. c.1949)... The house was leased by the Milligans to Miss M.G. Barrow (1895-1957).



Northfield (alias Barrow's Castle), Dornoch, Sutherland


Northfield, Dornoch, from ane early 20th century postcard.
A large Victorian villa, built in 1896 to the designs of James Maitland for John James Jerome Barrow (1829-1903). It consists of a huddle of domestic blocks clustered around an unexpectedly martial tower with machicolations and an oversized stair turret rising a storey higher than the tower itself. The house was later renamed Burghfield House and became an hotel in 1947. It has recently been modernised and converted into a training facility for students in the hospitality industry.

Descent: built 1896 for John James Jerome Barrow (1829-1903); to widow, Dorothea Mary Barrow (d. 1935); sold 1921 to Sir Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940), 1st Viscount Rothermere; sold in 1945 for conversion to an hotel; sold c.2015 to North Highland College.


Barrow family of Southwell and Sydnope Hall



Barrow, John (1713-1800). Third son of Richard Barrow (1682-1741) of Knotts, Heversham (Westmld) and his wife Susannah (1681-1746), daughter of James? Jackson of Burton-in-Kendal (Westmld), baptised at Heversham, 1 August 1713. He married, 27 December 1746 at Dent (Yorks WR), Isabel (d. 1794), daughter of William Hodgson of Dent (Yorks WR) and had issue:
(1) Rev. Richard Barrow (1747-1838) (q.v.);
(2) Susannah Barrow (1749-1815), baptised at Dent, 8 May 1749; died unmarried and was buried at Dent, 5 August 1815;
(3) Catherine Barrow (1752-1838), baptised at Dent, 1 January 1752; married, 11 June 1772 at Kirkby Lonsdale (Westmld), Thomas Kendal (1752-1815) of Kendal (Westmld), and had issue; buried at Tunstall (Lancs), 1 August 1838;
(4) Ven. William Barrow (1754-1836); educated at Sedbergh School and Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1774; BA 1778; Chancellor's Prize, 1778; DCL 1799); ordained deacon, 1779 and priest, 1780; Headmaster of the Soho Square Academy, London, 1782-99; delivered the Bampton Lectures at Oxford, 1799, published as Sermons containing answers to some popular objections against the necessity or the credibility of the Christian revelation (1799); wrote and published an influential Essay on Education (1802); vicar of Farnsfield (Notts), 1815-25; prebendary of Southwell, 1815-36; rector of North Wingfield, 1822-26, Waltham (Lincs), 1825-30 and Beelsby (Lincs), 1830-36; archdeacon of Nottingham, 1830-32; a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London; married, 5 January 1791, Elizabeth Anne (1736-1823), only daughter of John Probyn MP, but had no issue; died 19 April 1836 and was buried at Southwell, where he is commemorated by a monument; will proved in the PCC, 4 June 1836;
(5) James Barrow (1757-1811?), of Kendal; married, 17 December 1802 at Kendal, Jane, daughter of David Bowsher and widow of Robert Bainbridge of Howgill, and had issue one daughter; possibly the man of this name whose will was proved at York in 1811;
(6) Isabel Barrow (1762-1859), baptised at Sedbergh (Yorks WR), 31 January 1762; married, 29 April 1786 at Kendal (Westmld), William Bland (d. 1846) of Kendal, and had issue; died aged 96 in Jan-Mar 1859.
John lived at Howgill (Yorks WR).
He was buried at Sedbergh, 10 June 1800. His wife died in 1794.


Rev. Richard Barrow (1747-1838).
Image: Glenn Formoy.
Barrow, Rev. Richard (1747-1838). Eldest son of John Barrow (1713-1800) and his wife Isabel, daughter of William Hodgson of Dent (Yorks WR), baptised at Dent, 22 October 1747. Educated at Sedbergh School and St John's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1773; BD 1783). Ordained deacon, 1770 and priest, 1772. A great pluralist, he was curate of Kirkburn (Yorks), 1770-74; Vicar of Bleasley (Notts), 1774-78, Master of Southwell Grammar School, 1774-85 and Vicar-Choral of Southwell Minster, 1774-1838; vicar of South Muskham (Notts), 1778-1838, Upton (Notts), 1779-84, Halloughton (Notts), 1784-1838, Rolleston (Notts), 1784-85, Beelsby (Lincs), 1785-86 and Rampton (Notts), 1804-38; and Rector of South Wheatley (Notts), 1778-1838 and Barnoldby-le-Beck (Lincs), 1785-1838. He married, 1 January 1778 at Southwell, Mary (1755-1801), daughter of George Hodgkinson of Southwell, solicitor, and had issue:
(1) George Hodgkinson Barrow (1779-1853) (q.v.);
(2) Mary Anne Barrow (1780-1868), born 21 May and was baptised at Southwell, 1 June 1780; married, 14 August 1817 at Southwell, Rev. William Lawson (c.1750-1833), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, vicar of Kirkby Malzeard and Masham (Yorks NR) and commissary of the peculiar of Masham, son of Richard Lawson of Leeds, but had no issue; died 1 April 1868;
(3) Arabella Barrow (1782-1850), born 12 March 1782; died unmarried at Southwell, 1 September 1850; administration of her goods was granted 11 November 1850;
(4) William Hodgson Barrow (1784-1876), of Southwell, born 1 September 1784; educated at the Collegiate School, Southwell; practised as a solicitor in Southwell, 1806-33; coroner for the Liberty of Southwell; an officer in the Southwell Volunteers (Capt.) and a strong supporter of the Volunteer movement; JP (from 1837) and DL (from 1864) for Nottinghamshire; High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, 1845-46; in 1851 he fought an extremely closely contested election to be returned as Conservative MP for South Nottinghamshire, standing in the interest of tenant farmers against another Conservative, Lord Newark, who represented the landlord interest; he was thereafter returned unopposed until he retired in 1874, when he was (by seven years) the oldest MP; a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society, Royal Botanical Society, Royal Archaeological Institute and Royal Society of Arts; he died unmarried, 29 January, and was buried at Southwell, 4 February 1876;
(5) Richard Barrow (1787-1865) [for whom see below, Barrow of Ringwood Hall, Normanton Hall and Holmewood]
(6) John Barrow (1790-1871) [for whom see below, Barrow of Ringwood Hall, Normanton Hall and Holmewood]
(7) Rev. James Barrow (1793-1881), born 21 October 1793; educated at St John's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1811; BA 1815; MA 1818); Fellow of St. John's College; rector of  North and South Lopham (Norfk), 1823-61 and of North Wingfield (Derbys), 1861-78; married, 8 January 1824 at St. Marylebone (Middx), Louisa (1795-1870), illegitimate daughter of Sir Charles Warre Malet, 1st bt., British Resident at Poona (India) by his mistress Amber Kaur, a princess from Rajasthan, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 12 April 1881; will proved 23 March 1881 (effects under £3,000);
(8) Elizabeth Bullen Barrow (b. & d. 1797), baptised at Southwell, 23 February 1797; died in infancy, 25 July 1797 and was buried at Southwell;
(9) Sutton Bullen Barrow (1798-1875), born 1 March 1798; died unmarried, 28 May 1875, and was buried at Southwell; will proved 18 June 1875 (effects under £45,000).
Richard lived at Southwell from 1774 onwards.
He died aged 91 on 23 March 1838; his will was proved in the PCC, 1 August 1838. His wife died 30 August 1801.

Barrow, George Hodgkinson (1779-1853). Eldest son of Rev. Richard Barrow (1747-1838) and his wife Mary, daughter of George Hodgkinson of Southwell, baptised at Southwell, 25 January 1779. He was articled clerk to George Hodgkinson senior, 1794, and qualified as a solicitor. He was in partnership with George Hodgkinson junior as Barrow & Hodgkinson in Southwell until 1830, and played a leading role in the town: he was, for example, one of the gentlemen proprietors of the Assembly Room built in the town in 1805, and acted as Receiver-General of the Minster. He acquired an interest in a small iron foundry at Hollingwood Common in 1805 through his marriage and became the sole proprietor in 1811. He developed it into the Staveley Ironworks and subsequently diversified into coal mining, creating a vertically-integrated manufacturing business, which, by the time he sold it to his brother Richard in 1840, was employing 500 men. He married, 12 August 1805 at Southwell, Eliza (c.1771-1852), daughter of Walter Mather of Spondon (Derbys) and widow of Edward Richard Lowe (1770-1800) of Southwell, and had issue:
(1) Rev. George William Barrow (1806-57), baptised at Southwell, 23 November 1806; educated at Rugby and St. John's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1825; BA 1833); ordained deacon, 1833; curate of South Muskham (Notts), 1833; married, 5 September 1832 at Averham (Notts), Georgiana (1807-67), youngest daughter of Rev. Robert Chaplin, rector of Averham, but had no issue; died 19 September and was buried at Gravesend (Kent), 24 September 1857;
(2) Elizabeth Eleanor Barrow (1808-85), baptised at Southwell, 9 June 1808; married, 24 July 1866 at St James, Paddington (Middx), Charles Boyer (1822-78), son of Rev. John William Robert Boyer, but had no issue; died in London, 16 April 1885; will proved 23 May 1885 (effects £14,509);
(3) Richard Bridgeman Barrow (1809-76) (q.v.);
(4) Johanna Barrow (1813-71), baptised at Southwell, 28 October 1813; married, 15 September 1853, Rev. John Boyer (1806-90) of Spital House, Chesterfield, son of Rev. John William Robert Boyer; died 8 January and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, 12 January 1871; will proved 1 February 1871 (effects under £8,000).
George lived at Southwell until about 1830, and built Ringwood Hall in 1829-31 to provide accommodation nearer the Staveley works.
He was buried at Staveley, 14 May 1853; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 August 1853. His wife died 20 February 1852.

Barrow, Richard Bridgeman (1809-76). Second son of George Hodgkinson Barrow (1779-1853) and his wife Eliza, daughter of Walter Mather of Spondon (Derbys) and widow of Edward Lowe of Southwell, probably born in December 1809 and baptised at Southwell, 14 January 1810. He was articled clerk to his father in 1826. Solicitor at Southwell (Notts). JP and DL for Derbyshire. He married, 1st, 2 August 1836 at Southwell, Avice Elizabeth (1816-66), only daughter of William James May, and 2nd, 29 September 1868 at All Saints, Knightsbridge (Middx), Janetta Hannah (1836-70), daughter of Sir John Lambton Loraine, 10th bt., and had issue:
(1.1) Avice Mary Barrow (1837-1909), born 30 June and baptised at Southwell, 2 July 1837; resident in metal hospitals in Wendover (Bucks) and later Northampton from the 1870s; died unmarried, 13 February 1909; will proved 5 June 1909 (estate £8,825);
(1.2) Richard William Barrow (1838-78), born 1 July 1838; educated at Winchester College (admitted 1851); emigrated to Canada and lived at Kingston, Ontario where he served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Rifle Regt. (Ensign, 1856; Lt., 1858; retired 1862) and served as a JP; a freemason from 1864; returned to England after 1875 (perhaps as a result of his father's death); married Mary (d. 1907) (who m2, 23 August 1887, Lt-Col. Henry Robert Smith DSO, sergeant-at-arms of the Ontario parliament, son of Admiral Sir Henry Smith, kt.), daughter of Thomas Gurley; died at Eastbourne (Sussex), 8 December 1878; will proved 29 January 1879 (effects under £14,000);
(1.3) George Barrow (1839-88), born 1 July and baptised at Southwell, 4 July 1839; solicitor; died at Little Eaton (Derbys), 29 December 1888; administration of goods granted 20 February 1889 (effects £12,353);
(1.4) John Walter Barrow (1840-41), born 20 September 1840; died in infancy, 14 February 1841;
(1.5) Bridgeman Langdale Barrow (1844-1922) (q.v.);
(2.1) Claude Loraine Barrow (1870-1903), born 10 August and baptised at Darley Dale, 31 August 1870; orphaned at the age of six and brought up largely by his aunt, Lady Fairbairn; educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (matriculated 1890); participated in an expedition to survey the New Zealand Alps, 1894-95; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Zoological Society; on his return from New Zealand, he moved to the Villa La Romana, Biarritz (France) and converted to the Roman Catholic faith, 1896; in 1900 he took up motor racing and became the agent for Daimler in south-west France; he married, 7 January 1897, Marie Valerie (who m2, 11 June 1907, Lt-Col. Arthur Murray Pirie DSO (d. 1917), and had issue), daughter of Rev. Philip Gurdon of Assington Hall (Suffk), and had issue one son; he died of pneumonia on 13 June 1903 after being injured in a motor racing accident three weeks earlier in which he lost a leg and his Spanish mechanic and a pedestrian were killed; he was buried with his mechanic in the Sabaou cemetery, Biarritz; his will was proved 8 August 1903 (estate £7,390).
Richard lived at Southwell and bought Sydnope Hall (Derbys) in about 1860.
He died 22 June and was buried at Darley Dale, 29 June 1876; his will was proved 15 July 1876 (effects under £30,000). His first wife died at Torquay (Devon), 12 April 1866; administration of her goods was granted 4 May 1866 (effects under £300). His second wife died following childbirth, 28 August and was buried at Darley Dale, 1 September 1870; administration of her goods was granted to her stepson, Bridgeman L. Barrow, 25 May 1894 (effects £113).

Barrow, Bridgeman Langdale (1844-1922). Fourth son of Richard Bridgeman Barrow (1809-76) and his first wife, Avice Elizabeth, only daughter of William James May, born 9 September 1844. He was articled clerk to his father. Solicitor and notary public. JP for Derbyshire. He married, 22 July 1880 at Riddings (Derbys), Jane Margaret (1857-1944), eldest daughter of Charles Henry Oakes of Hollyhurst, Riddings, and had issue:
(1) Charles Langdale Barrow (1881-1907), born 28 May and baptised at Darley Dale, 2 July 1881; educated at Shrewsbury School; emigrated to Canada; died unmarried at Souris, Manitoba (Canada), 27 May 1907; administration of goods granted in London, 7 May 1908 (effects £27);
(2) Alfred James Barrow (1882-1946), born 30 April and baptised at Darley Dale, 1 June 1882; educated at Bedford Grammar School; working in 1939 as a Hoffman presser in a laundry in Blackpool; died unmarried in Blackpool, 19 December 1946; will proved 7 January 1947 (estate £1,330);
(3) Cecil Bridgeman Barrow (1883-1962) (q.v.);
(4) Claude Gerard Barrow (1886-1967), born 15 September 1886; educated at Bedford Grammar School; emigrated to Canada, 1906 but served with Canadian Expeditionary Force in First World War and returned to England between 1924 and 1939; worked subsequently as a nursery gardener near Settle (Yorks WR); married, 4 March 1924 at St Mary, Hunslet, Leeds (Yorks WR), Nora Marian Winifred (1892-1998), second daughter of Rev. Ambrose Garlick, but had no issue; buried at Snainton (Yorks), 7 April 1967; his widow died aged 105 on 27 April 1998;
(5) Margeurite Georgina Barrow (1891-1976), born 15 March and baptised at Darley Dale, 28 April 1891; married, November 1924, Capt. Henry Michael O'Riordan OBE (1883-1955), Royal Marines, but had no issue; lived latterly at St. Mawes (Cornw.); died 28 November and was buried at Liskeard (Cornw.), 2 December 1976; will proved 25 January 1977 (estate £16,964).
Bridgeman inherited Sydnope Hall from his father in 1876.
He died 26 January 1922; administration of his goods (with will annexed) was granted 1 March 1922 (estate £22,926). His widow died 27 January and was buried at Liskeard (Cornw.), 31 January 1944; her will was proved 23 May 1944 (estate £4,972).

Barrow, Cecil Bridgeman (1883-1962). Third son of Bridgeman Langdale Barrow (1844-1922) and his wife Jane Margaret, eldest daughter of Charles H. Oakes of Holly Hurst, nr. Alfreton (Derbys), born 11 November and baptised at Riddings (Derbys), 26 December 1883. Educated at Bedford Grammar School. He served with the Leicestershire Regiment in the First World War (Sgt.). He married, 13 August 1919, Gladys Margeurite (1890-1995), eldest daughter of Rev. Ambrose Garlick, curate of Darley Dale 1893-1904 and later vicar of St Luke, Derby, and had issue:
(1) Peter Langdale Barrow (b. & d. 1920), born 25 August 1920; died in infancy, 23 September 1920;
(2) Barbara Joan Barrow (1921-2011), born 25 October 1921; married, Apr-Jun 1946 at St Helen, Darley (Derbys), John Cuthbert Brooke-Taylor (1916-90) and had issue two sons; died 29 January 2011;
(3) Avice Elizabeth Barrow (b. 1928), born 23 February 1928; married Enos J. Lee (1923-2011) of Ashover (Derbys), and had issue two children.
Cecil inherited Sydnope Hall from his father in 1922, but lived at Moor House, nr. Matlock (Derbys). His repeated efforts to sell Sydnope Hall were eventually successful in 1939.
He died 12 March 1962; administration of his goods was granted 1 February 1963 (estate £11,757). His widow died aged 104 on 12 January 1995.


Barrow family of Ringwood Hall, Normanton Hall, and Holmewood


Richard Barrow (1787-1865)
Barrow, Richard (1787-1865). Third son of Rev. Richard Barrow (1747-1838) and his wife Mary, daughter of George Hodgkinson of Southwell, born 20 July 1787. In partnership with his brother John at Tokenhouse Yard, London, as merchants trading chiefly with Spain and Portugal and later also with China; he managed the English end of the concern. In about 1840, he and his brother retired from this business and he bought the Staveley Ironworks from his elder brother George, greatly expanding the business, which employed 4,260 men at his death compared with around 500 when he bought it. In 1850 he supplied most of the ironwork for the 'Crystal Palace' housing the Great Exhibition of 1851. He built the village of Barrow Hill between 1853 and 1856 to accommodate his workmen. In 1863, the firm became a limited company, of which he was Chairman: he was stated to have received £600,000 for his shares he sold in the business, but he also retained a substantial holding. He suffered acutely from sciatica which made him lame and he walked with the assistance of two sticks in his later years. He was unmarried and without issue.
Richard bought or inherited Ringwood Hall (Derbys) from his brother George in 1853.
He died of a heart attack in London on 10 January 1865, and was buried at Staveley, 17 January 1865; his will was proved 22 February 1865 (effects under £500,000).

Barrow, John (1790-1871). Fourth son of Rev. Richard Barrow (1747-1838) and his wife Mary, daughter of George Hodgkinson of Southwell, born at Southwell, 12 August 1790. In partnership with his brother Richard at Tokenhouse Yard, London, as merchants trading chiefly with Spain and Portugal, and later also with China; he lived in Bilbao to manage the Iberian end of the concern for some years. In about 1840 he and his brother retired from this business and he moved to live on his estate at Southwell. After his brother Richard's death he succeeded him as Chairman of the Staveley Ironworks, 1865-71. He was also Chairman of the Amsterdam Waterworks Co. and the Cagliali Gas & Water Co. (established 1862), and a director of the British & Foreign Credit Co. He was probably unmarried, but had issue by Barbara, daughter of Don Izqueiredo of San Roque, Andalusia (Spain):
(X1) Juana Maria Barrow (1827-66), born in Spain, 1827; married, 13 June 1849 at St James, Paddington (Middx), Rev. Disney Legard Alexander (1821-68), vicar of Ganton (Yorks NR), 1853-68, eldest son of Edward Nelson Alexander of Halifax (Yorks WR), solicitor, and had issue four sons and two daughters; died 6 August 1866;
(X2) John James Jerome Barrow (1829-1903) (q.v.).
John purchased Normanton Hall, Southwell on giving up his Spanish business in 1840. He inherited Ringwood Hall from his brother in 1865 and seems to have moved there, although he was at Normanton at the time of the 1871 census.
He died at his London house, 22 July, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London, 28 July 1871; his will was proved 14 October 1871 (effects under £120,000). His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barrow, John James Jerome (1829-1903). Only, and probably illegitimate, son of John Barrow (1790-1871) and his wife Barbara, daughter of Don Izqueiredo, probably born at San Roque (Spain), 1829. Chairman of the Manchester and Milford Railway Co. (the affairs of which were in Chancery almost from the time its few miles of completed line were opened) and a director of the Staveley Coal & Iron Co., Newstead Colliery Ltd. and Cagliari Gas & Water Co. He was JP and DL for Derbyshire and Master of the Rufford Hounds, 1873. He married 1st, 31 May 1854 at Halifax (Yorks WR), Caroline (c.1833-65), daughter of W. Fergusson Holroyde of Heath Royde, Halifax, and 2nd, 3 July 1867 at Exminster (Devon), Dorothea Mary (1849-1935), eldest daughter of Rev. James Deans, vicar of Exminster, and had issue:
(1.1) John Burton Barrow (1855-1914) (q.v.);
(1.2) Dora Lawson Barrow (1856-1950), baptised at Holy Trinity, Halifax (Yorks WR), 4 October 1856; a keen supporter of the Cottesmore Hunt; lived at 'The Residence', Empingham; died unmarried, aged 93, on 4 June 1950; will proved 28 July 1950 (estate £117,566);
(1.3) Rev. Richard Barrow (1857-1932), born 20 December 1857 at St Leonards-on-Sea (Sussex); educated at Christs College, Cambridge (matriculated 1876; BA 1882; MA 1885); ordained deacon, 1882 and priest, 1885; vicar of Skendleby (Lincs), 1885-1924; lived in retirement at Halton House, Halton Holgate; married, 26 October 1882 at Litcham (Norfk), Elinor May (1858-1941), daughter of Rev. George William Winter, rector of Litcham, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 21 December 1932; his unusual will proved 17 January 1933 (estate £36,481) left his estate to his widow and on her death to be divided equally between his children, but their legacies were only to be payable if they were or became parents;
(1.4) Copner Walton Barrow (1859-1911), born 14 August and baptised at Southwell, 24 September 1859; educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1879; BA 1885) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1881); director of companies; lived at 54 New Walk, Leicester, and later at The Gables, Blewbury (Berks) and Springfield, Kempston (Beds); declared bankrupt in 1897 but cleared his debts on receipt of a legacy of £8,000 from his father in 1904; married 1st, 24 December 1888 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx) (div. 1892), Maria de los Dolores (c.1864-1934) (who m3, 1894, Charles Trevor Roller), daughter of John Whitworth Shaw and formerly wife of Francis Lowrey, and had issue one son; married 2nd, Jul-Sept 1906, Ada Rose Goble or Catherine Maud Robertson; died 22 November 1911, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London; will proved 20 April 1912 (estate £2,152);
(1.5) Maj. Leonard Norman Barrow (1861-1932) (q.v.);
(1.6) Clara Isabella Barrow (1862-1904), born Apr-Jun 1862 and baptised at Torquay (Devon), 20 March 1863; married, 15 November 1883 at Langton Green (Kent), Alfred John Winter (1859-1940) (who m2, 1905, Ada Dunton (b. 1867)), but had no issue; died 29 August 1904; will proved 9 December 1904 (estate £10,129);
(2.1) Lt-Col. Charles Deans Barrow (1875-1944), born 4 April 1875; as a young man he hunted with the Eridge Hounds; an officer in the 3rd (Reserve) Battn., Queens Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment (2nd Lt., 1896; Lt., 1897; Capt. 1902; Maj., 1913; Lt-Col. 1917; retired 1918); bought Farmington Lodge estate (Glos), 1901, altered the house c.1912 and moved there after the First World War; member of Northleach Rural District Council, 1922-44; married, 16 May 1907 at Langleybury (Herts), Violet Frances (1884-1950), daughter of Alfred S. Broadwood of Great Missenden (Bucks), and had issue one son and three daughters; will proved April 1945 (estate £62,466);
(2.2) Edith Mary Barrow (1872-1938), born at Exminster (Devon), 29 December 1872; lived at Broomlands, Langton Green (Kent) and was a generous supporter of many local charities and initiatives; she was an ardent rider to hounds and golfer, and died unmarried on a golfing holiday in Scotland, 11 August 1938; her will was proved 9 November 1938 (estate £99,968);
(2.3) Juana Constance (k/a Nita) Barrow (1876-1963), born 30 September 1876; married, 26 April 1906 at Langton Green, Sidney Stanley Williams (1872-1954) of Boons Park, Edenbridge (Kent), and had issue one son; died 8 August 1963; will proved 5 November 1963 (estate £105,433);
(2.4) Stella Violet Barrow (1879-1914), baptised at Paddington (Middx), 25 March 1879; died unmarried, 31 December 1914; will proved February 1915 (estate £39,544);
(2.5) Nora Cicely Barrow (1881-1929); married, 23 May 1907 at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, London, William Lindsay Lindsay-Hogg (1882-1918), son of Sir Lindsay Lindsay-Hogg, 1st bt., and had issue two sons; died at Haywards Grange, Uckfield (Sussex), 16 November 1929; will proved 3 January 1930 (estate £10,980).
In the 1850s John James lived at Upper Farm, West Burton (Notts) as agent to his father. After his marriage he moved to Normanton Hall, Southwell, which his father owned. He inherited Ringwood Hall from his uncle in 1865 and moved there. He purchased Holmewood (Kent) in 1874, and Normanton Hall, Southwell in 1887 (from his father's trustees/executors). He had a town house at 35 Hyde Park Gardens, London, which became his main residence in about 1884. He also built Northfield (alias Barrow's Castle) at Dornoch (Sutherland) to the designs of James Maitland in 1896.
He died suddenly of a heart attack at his house in London, 18 July 1903; his will was proved 26 August 1903 (estate £427,002), and left the bulk of his estate to his widow. His first wife died at Torquay, 12 June 1865. His widow died 4 September 1935; her will was proved November 1935 (estate £374,669).


John Burton Barrow (1855-1914)
Barrow, John Burton (1855-1914). Eldest son of John James Barrow (1829-1903) and his first wife, Caroline, daughter of W. Fergusson Holroyde of Heath Royde, Halifax (Yorks WR), born 5 March 1855. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1873; BA 1878; MA 1880) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1874; called 1879). Barrister-at-law. JP for Derbyshire (by 1882). A Conservative in politics, he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Mid Derbyshire, 1885 and North-East Derbyshire, 1890. He succeeded his father as Chairman of the Manchester and Milford Railway and was also a director of the Amsterdam Waterworks Co. by 1888 (this proved to be a disastrous speculation), the Continental Union Waterworks Co. (from 1888); and of the Staveley Coal & Iron Co. (from 1891). He was permanently lame but was a keen sportsman and was accounted a fine shot. He had a passion for horses, and kept some of the finest carriage horses in the country to pull his four-in-hand carriage. He married, 14 April 1876 at Staveley, Helen Janet Ada (1855-1936), daughter of Rev. James Duncan Macfarlane, rector of Staveley (Derbys), and had issue:
(1) Rev. Arthur Edmund John Burton Barrow (1877-1958), born 19 May and baptised at Staveley, 24 June 1877; educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and St. Stephen's House, Oxford; ordained deacon, 1903 and priest, 1904; curate 1903-12; vicar of St Mary, Halifax, 1912-21, Worfield (Shrops.), 1921-31, and Bakewell, 1931-38; rural dean of Bridgnorth, 1928-31 and of Bakewell, 1936-38; rector of Great Shefford (Berks), 1938-c.1942; married, 27 September 1908 at St George, Hanover Sq., London, Dorothy Kitty St. Clair Feilden (1882-1960) and had issue one daughter; died 26 September 1958; will proved 29 September 1959 (estate £7,562);
(2) Emily Dora Zoe Hammond Barrow (1878-1951), born 14 October and baptised at Staveley, 24 November 1878; married, 12 October 1910 at Aspley Guise (Beds), Maj. Julian Musgrave Mordaunt (1887-1949) of The Lodge, Aspley Guise and later of Ashton Keynes (Wilts), but had no issue; died 19 January 1951; will proved 12 July 1951 (estate £4,214);
(3) Rev. James Humphrey Copner Barrow (later Macfarlane-Barrow) (1880-1943), born 21 April and baptised at Staveley, 4 June 1880; rector of Christ Church, Lochgilphead and Inverary (Argylls.); married, 7 November 1917 at Lochgilphead, Alice Maie Campbell-Orde (1897-1995), and had issue four sons and two daughters; died 31 May 1943; will confirmed in Scotland;
(4) Richard Murray Barrow (1881-1962), born 31 July 1881; an officer in the merchant marine (second mate, 1902), but c.1906 retrained as a medical practitioner at Durham University (MB, 1911; BS 1911); served in Royal Navy in First World War (Surg-Lt., 1916); doctor in Devon and later at Long Sutton (Lincs) and Stone (Staffs), where he was also a police surgeon; jailed for nine months and struck off the medical register in 1943 for administering abortifacients at the request of a patient, but reinstated on the register in 1944; married, 11 June 1913 at Ryde (IoW), Eleanor Mary Vincent; died at Sevenoaks, 10 March 1962; will proved 16 April 1962 (estate £4,155);
(5) (Ellen) Janet Innes Barrow (1883-1965), born Jan-Mar 1883; well-known stage and radio actress, who progressed from amateur theatricals in Bedfordshire to a long career in the West End; appointed MBE, 1919, for her work with Church of England Institutes in Bedfordshire during the First World War; she was also an expert needlewoman, whose work attracted the attention of Queen Mary; her 'Victory tapestry' helped to raise funds for the reconstruction of St Clement Danes church, London, after the Blitz, and now hangs there; she died unmarried, 5 March 1965; will proved 6 May 1965 (estate £14,677);
(6) Frances Muriel Barrow (1884-1969), born 10 July and baptised at Staveley, 7 August 1884; married, 7 October 1908 at Aspley Guise, John Arnold Hammond-Chambers-Borgnis (1883-1944), of Thicket House, Leckhampstead (Berks), architect, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 23 September 1969; will proved 4 December 1969 (estate £2,307);
(7) Isabel Joan Barrow (1886-1957), born 19 February and baptised at Staveley, 28 March 1886; married, 9 July 1914 at Aspley Guise, William Brooke Hardy (1880-1942), third son of Dr. William George Hardy of Bournemouth; died 25 September 1957; will proved 3 January 1958 (estate £5,466).
When he was first married John rented Thurgarton Priory (Notts) for a few years before moving to Ringwood Hall, which he inherited from his father in 1903 but occupied by c.1880. He sold Ringwood in 1910, and bought The Red House, Aspley Guise (Beds).
He died of cancer, 25 June 1914; his will was proved 1 June 1915 (estate £14,246). His widow died 2 August 1936 and was buried at Dorchester-on-Thames (Oxon); her will was proved 13 November 1936 (estate £3,179).

Barrow, Maj. Leonard Norman (1861-1932). Second son of John James Barrow (1829-1903) and his first wife, Caroline, daughter of W. Fergusson Holroyde of Heath Royde, Halifax (Yorks WR), born 5 July and baptised at Southwell Minster, 5 August 1861. An officer in the Royal Engineers (2nd Lt., 1888; Lt., 1889; Capt., 1892; Maj., 1893). A director of the Staveley Iron Co., 1919-32. JP for Nottinghamshire (from 1902); Governor of Southwell Grammar School; member of Nottinghamshire County Council. He was a keen sportsman. He married, 10 December 1891 at West Keal (Lincs), Mary Mason (1866-1956), daughter of Lt-Col. Henry Valentine Grantham of West Keal Hall, and had issue:
(1) Nancy Mary Barrow (1893-1958), born 8 December 1893 and baptised at Langton Green (Kent), 14 January 1894; died unmarried at Somersby Grange (Lincs), 26 January 1958; will proved 25 June 1958 (estate £17,169);
(2) Marjory Grantham Barrow (1895-1957); baptised at Langton Green, 31 March 1895; farmer and prize-winning cattle-breeder at Normanton Hall and later at 'The Residence', Empingham (Rutland), which she inherited from her aunt Dora in 1950; died unmarried, 9 September 1957;
(3) Hilda Barrow (1897-1970), born 11 August and baptised at Langton Green, 6 September 1897; married, 4 August 1926, as his second wife, Edward Devon Newman (1885-1977) of Somersby Grange (Lincs), but had no issue; died 22 October 1970; will proved 18 January 1971 (estate £10,317);
(4) Sybil Grantham Barrow (1901-92), born 4 March and baptised at Langton Green, 7 April 1901; married 1st, Jul-Sept 1922 (div. 1926), John Fisher Fosbroke Pain (1898-1974), son of the Rev. Edward Andrew Pain; married 2nd, 12 February 1927, William Arthur Charles Allison Yearsley (1903-68), electronic engineer, and had issue one daughter; died at Beaminster (Dorset), 3 June 1992; will proved 28 January 1993 (estate £114,028);
(5) Leonard Valentine Grantham Barrow (1902-90), born 6 June 1902; educated at Repton School; engineer with Staveley Coal & Iron Co.; joined Royal Air Force Reserve (pilot officer, 1927; flying officer, 1930; retired); return to service in RAF (pilot officer, 1939; flight lt.; sq. ldr. 1943; mentioned in dispatches, 1941); lived at West Mersea (Essex) and became a soft drink manufacturer; died unmarried, 5 June 1990; will proved 20 February 1990 (estate under £100,000).
Leonard lived at Broomlands, Langton Green (then a dower house on the Holmewood estate) and by 1901 at Normanton Hall, Southwell.
He died following an operation, 27 May 1932 and was buried at Southwell Minster, 30 May 1932; his will was proved in 21 July and 11 October 1932 (estate £28,461). His widow died at Woodhall Spa (Lincs), 14 June 1956; her will was proved 23 August 1956 (estate £13,012)


Principal sources


Burke's Landed Gentry, 1898, i, pp. 73-74; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, pp. 108-09; M. Craven & M. Stanley, The Derbyshire country house, 2001, pp. 302, 312; D. Barre, Historic gardens and parks of Derbyshire, 2017, pp. 162-64, 169-70;
http://www.historicracing.com/driver_detail.cfm?driverID=7868;
http://nedias.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NEDIAS-Newsletter-No-69-%E2%80%93-February-2018.pdf.


Location of archives


No significant accumulation is known to survive.


Coat of arms


Per pale, indented, sable and azure, two swords in saltire proper, pommels and hilts or, between four fleurs-de-lis, two in pale of the last and two in fesse, argent.


Can you help?

  • Can anyone provide a view of the predecessor of the current Normanton Hall, Southwell, and does anyone know more about when the current house was built?
  • Can anyone provide information about the post-Second World War ownership of Normanton Hall, Southwell?
  • I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
  • As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.


Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 11 April 2020 and was updated 2 May 2020. I am most grateful to Simon Dear for additional information and corrections.