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
