Barber Family - Fressingfield, Suffolk

The following information about the Barber Family of Fressingfield, Suffolk, England is gathered from The Bohun of Fressingfield Cartulary, Edited by Bridget Welss-Furry in the series Suffolk Charters XIX. Bohun kept track of the transfers of various lands (and related families) in Fressingfield, many of them about his own family, but also including other ‘prominent’ families of the area.

From an online Amazon description - The documents edited here tell a story of aspiration and social mobility in late medieval Suffolk. Edmund Bohun, the younger son of a prosperous yeoman from Fressingfield, managed through good contacts and good luck to obtain a position in the center of administrative and political power in London, thence achieving armigerous status as well as acquiring considerable amounts of land, both in and round the village itself and elsewhere in Suffolk.

Having no son of his own, he left his land and coat of arms to his nephews, thereby establishing the family's fortunes on a level which they were to retain for several generations. His cartulary describes the properties which he accumulated, and reveals much about the social links of local society, and the financial dealings of its yeomen and farmers who actively traded land between themselves.

This edition of the cartulary is presented with a detailed introduction which analyses its contents and places it in its historical and social context; it also includes other charters concerning Fressingfield which are preserved in the Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich.

The name is spelled variously  - Barber, Barbur, Barbour, Barbourgh, Barburgh, le Barber le Barbur, le Barbour, etc.; Bober, Bobir, Bobur, Bobyr

Barber, Edmund p 16

Barber, Hugh (fl 1350-1347), 25, 51, 56; land of, 142,143; of Fressingfield, 145; witness, 62, 143, 180-1/200-1

Barber, James (fl 1475), 57, of Fressingfield, 118

Barber, John (fl 1323-1441), land of, 65-6, 70, 74, 80, 145; land formerly of, 38, 48, (1359); messuages formerly of, 49 (1370); witness, 8, 43, 59, 62, 65,66, 70, 73, 141, 145, 179/199, 214, 217, 260, B36; of Fressingfield, witness, 120

Barber, John (fl 1437- 1462), 27, 9, 14, 24-5, 27, 57, 80, 89, 234(e), 250-3; land of, 234 (b, c, d); 258; land formerly of, 164 (1467); of Fressingfield, and Isabel his wife, 25, 68, 152; witness, 89, 154 184, 198, 207, 228, 230, 231, 232, 264, 265; the elder, holding formerly of, 166 (1479); the elder, land of, 234 (c); the elder, of Fressingfield, 157-6; the elder, witness, 153

Barber, John (fl 1437-1475) 14, 27-8, 57; of Fressingfield, 118; the younger, 234 (f); land of, 234 (c); of Fressingfield, 161; son of Roger, 5; of Fressingfield, B10; of Fressingfield, witness, 163

Barber, John (fl 1574) 13, 19, 146

Barber, John (unspecified) 14-5, 17, 19, 24, 48, 57, 63, 73, 77, 79; lands, formerly of 55; messuages, formerly of, 55; witness, B9-B10

Barber, messuage of, 4

Barber, Richard (fl 1368) 55, 66, 24

Barber, Richard (fl 1462-1477) 57, 14, 27, 63, 284; of Fressingfield, wheelwright, 254

Barber, Robert (fl 1307-1317) witness, 67; the younger, 55-6; 67, 211

Barber, Robert (fl 1352-1378) 54, 56, 60, 67, 69, 72, 82; son of Hugh, of Fressingfield, 133; land of, 125, 132; pightle of, 28, 30, 32; of Fressingfield, witness, 144, 278; witness, 12-14, 24, 28, 44, 46, 50-52, 63, 132, 167-9, 172, 276, 279

Barber, Robert (fl 1378-1395) brother of Roger, 25, 68, 74, 156; of Fressingfield 136, 147, 197-8; witness, 262, 283

Barber, Robert (fl 1420-1438) 234(d); land of, 255; witness, 154, 207, 228, 255

Barber, Roger (fl 1378-1386) 7, 25, 54, 56; brother of Robert, 68, 74, 156; of Fressingfield, 147

Barber family, 61, 67

Bober, Hugh, 82

Bobyr, Peter, 54; land formerly of, 68, 237, (1344)

Bobyr, Robert (fl 1352-1382), 24-5, 41-2, 54, 56, 59-60, 68, 74, 82, 32, 126, 138, 149; and Agnes his wife, 39, 42, 54, 68, 74, 156; land of, 170; pightle of, 149, 168, uncle of Roger and Robert Barbour, 147; of Fressingfield, 30, 37, 46, 61, 148, 150, 156; of Fressingfield, and Agnes his wife, 146; witness, 9, 12-13, 24, 28, 33, 36, 44, 49-50, 52, 63, 71-2, B2/269, 123, 125, 129, 133-5, 144, 167, 169-70, 172, 185, 224, 276, 278-9; of Fressingfield, witness, 11, 261

Bobyr. Sara (fl 1335) 54; messuage of, 179/199

p 60  “Among the dozen, Robert Bobyr, his brother-in-law or nephew, Robert Barber . . .(+7 others), came from established Fressingfield families. Bobyr had no children and left his lands to his Barber nephews; . . . “

pp 60-61  “Among the well established group, only Barber and Dade had descendents (i.e. in Fressingfield), or at last individuals of the same name, who remained prominent in the village until the latter part of the following century.” (ie. the 1400’s)

p 67 (footnote): “Robert le Tanner had between a frequent witness to charters between c 1290 and 1309, appearing on the last with his son Robert, and in 1299 had granted a piece of land to Thomas Kembald. His son Robert occurs as Robert de Fressingfield and as Robert le Barber the younger, so the elder Robert may also have been known as Robert le Barber, an interesting variety of trades if these names are indicative. A Robert le Barber had witnessed a 1307 charter. The son Robert alienated a curtillage next to his croft in 1314 to the rector Philip de Thorpe and by 1317 this croft had passed to Richard Edward. Thorpe obtained quitclaims of the curillage from Alice, widow of Thomas Mannock and John de Metfield, who may have been kinsfolk, but whether Margaret Perleman was the widow of Robert the father or Robert the son, and whether these Roberts were ancestors of the prominent Barber family which appears frequently until the end of the following century, is unknown: 209-11.)

Tanner, Robert le (fl 1290 – 1309) 35, 37, 55-6, 67, 83; lands and buildings, formerly of, 175 (1319); of Fressingfield, 202; witness, 18, 55, 66, 76-7; his son Robert, 62; witness, 55; his son and heir, Robert de Fressingfield, 209