One of my 2nd great-grandfathers
Born 2 Jan 1810, Magpie Lane, Oxford, UK
Printer/Compositor and Inn-keeper
1810 May 13th Frederick was baptised in the church of St. John the Baptist, Oxford,
also known as Merton College Chapel. His parents were John and Mary Barrett.
John, stable-keeper and his step-father William Higgs, publican at the Magpye
are recorded as parishioners who participated in the "Beating of the Bounds"
on Ascension Day 1799 (2nd of May).
"Baptisms and Marriages at Merton College" by Alan Bott M.A., F.S.A. (1981)
Magpie Lane, Oxford (1813)
By A. C. Pugin 1762 - 1832
At the time of the artist's visit, young Frederick would have been 3 years old.
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The lady sweeping the pavement by the door of "Ye Mag-pye Inn" might have been a relation,
after all his father John was the stable-keeper (1799) and the wife of the licensee was Mrs Higgs
(nee widow Ann Barrett) Frederick's grandmother born c.1746. And it's very likely that the artist
had a soft spot for the family as he imbibed at the hostelry during breaks from his labour of love.
_____________________
The foundations of the Chapel tower sit on the far side of Merton Street.
And this link will take you to a Choral-Evensong
recorded on the Eve of Ascension Day, 2021.
[ The link includes birds'-eye drone movies of the college etc, enjoy. ]
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The defensive wall on the right belongs to Oriel College.
The entire row on the left (10,11,12 &13) was demolished in the 1960s.
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Over centuries the pub and lane had many variations of title e.g. Magepie, Magpy (1624),
Mag-pie (1687), Mag-py Inn (1732), Ye Mag-pye (1753), Magpye Lane (1820), Magpie Lane 2021 etc.
(Data from the Alan Bott publication.)
_____________________
1753 Delving deeper
into
the above "Beating of the
Bounds" saga, the church registers take us
further back in time as another Mr Barrett, publican
of 'Ye-
Mag-pye ' is reported to have been in an earlier "Beating of
the
Bounds"
on the 31st of May 1753. This
'Mr Barrett' was
probably Frederick's great-grandfather Thomas
Barrett
born c.1715 and if so, my
branch of the
descendant family-tree
looks
like this :-
Thomas Barrett (b.1715) publican=Anne // Thomas B. jnr. (b.1746) publican=Ann // John B. (b.1769)=Mary // Frederick B. (b.1810) printer=Sophia Barber-Field (b.1805) // and John Henry Barrett (b.1840) printer=Rebecca who begat my maternal grandmother Rosa Susanna Barrett (b.1877) Trained Nurse and midwife.
Thomas jnr. died age 22 (1768) and it was nine years later (1777) that his widow-Ann married Mr Willam Higgs. It seems that before Ann's marriage to William she had been the 'merry-widow', resident or licensee at Ye Mag-pye, hence the Inn remained in the occupancy of the Barretts.
1841 Frederick was living in Chesterfield with wife Sophia, son John Henry, step-sons William Ainley Barber and Thomas Barber. Also present was the Barber boys' grandmother Molly Barber (widow, nee Field), her late husband an Officer of Excise at Wakefield.
Click for more family life in Sophia's own page
This image of Frederick Barrett c.1890 is included here as a digital copy of the original photograph
by kind permission of the owner (Richard Winterschladen), who remarked,
" The reverse has the following legend in my Grandfather’s hand ‘Grandpa F.Barrett. Over 80 years old’ "
Webmaster (GR) : At that time I believe that Frederick's son John Henry was landlord of the St.Leger public house in Doncaster,
so, might the photograph have been taken nearby at the Doncaster racecourse in a travelling photographer's marquee ?
And on a humorous note could that 'horse' have been a very expensive work of art by a taxidermist,
that is, just as much a photographer's prop as the top-hat !
We should not be surprised to see 'Fred' on horseback, even at this great age,
as it appears that he had lived with horses since a boy.
As mentioned above his father John was the stablekeeper at Ye Magpie, near Merton College, Oxford.
No connection, but there are a couple of coincidences worth mentioning here :
1. 1889 The winner of the St.Leger was "Donovan". His rider was a jockey named Frederick Barrett.
2. 1891 The winner of the St.Leger was "Common". His rider was a jockey named George Barrett.
Thomas Barrett (b.1715) publican=Anne // Thomas B. jnr. (b.1746) publican=Ann // John B. (b.1769)=Mary // Frederick B. (b.1810) printer=Sophia Barber-Field (b.1805) // and John Henry Barrett (b.1840) printer=Rebecca who begat my maternal grandmother Rosa Susanna Barrett (b.1877) Trained Nurse and midwife.
Thomas jnr. died age 22 (1768) and it was nine years later (1777) that his widow-Ann married Mr Willam Higgs. It seems that before Ann's marriage to William she had been the 'merry-widow', resident or licensee at Ye Mag-pye, hence the Inn remained in the occupancy of the Barretts.
Frederick's
half-sister
Susanna b.1799
married William
Wilkinson
who became Registrar at
Darlington. I have suspected for some
time that
Susanna and William met in Oxford when he
was an
undergraduate. My earlier
allusion
to
'half-sister' derives from my conversation with a librarian at Oxford
who had found for me evidence to suggest that John Barrett
had been
married before to a Susanna, so it follows that this
half
sister
was named after her mother.
1837
Feb 4 Frederick 27 married Sophia
Barber (widow, nee
Field), at St.
John's
church, Wakefield.- One-by-one Fred's
siblings
were baptised at Merton College Chapel,
namely half siblings Susanna 1799, Jane 1800, John
Forster-Barrett
1801; and full siblings Mary 1805, Henry 1808 and Margaret
1812.
1841 Frederick was living in Chesterfield with wife Sophia, son John Henry, step-sons William Ainley Barber and Thomas Barber. Also present was the Barber boys' grandmother Molly Barber (widow, nee Field), her late husband an Officer of Excise at Wakefield.
Click for more family life in Sophia's own page
This image of Frederick Barrett c.1890 is included here as a digital copy of the original photograph
by kind permission of the owner (Richard Winterschladen), who remarked,
" The reverse has the following legend in my Grandfather’s hand ‘Grandpa F.Barrett. Over 80 years old’ "
Webmaster (GR) : At that time I believe that Frederick's son John Henry was landlord of the St.Leger public house in Doncaster,
so, might the photograph have been taken nearby at the Doncaster racecourse in a travelling photographer's marquee ?
And on a humorous note could that 'horse' have been a very expensive work of art by a taxidermist,
that is, just as much a photographer's prop as the top-hat !
We should not be surprised to see 'Fred' on horseback, even at this great age,
as it appears that he had lived with horses since a boy.
As mentioned above his father John was the stablekeeper at Ye Magpie, near Merton College, Oxford.
No connection, but there are a couple of coincidences worth mentioning here :
1. 1889 The winner of the St.Leger was "Donovan". His rider was a jockey named Frederick Barrett.
2. 1891 The winner of the St.Leger was "Common". His rider was a jockey named George Barrett.
More
archive images from 'Richard' received with
thanks
Two letters sent 1885 and 1890 by Frederick to his daughter Mary Jane Winterschladen
This 1885 letter was sent from the Cheshire Cheese Inn, Doncaster (before the move to the St.Leger pub)
![1885 Letter [side A]](1885Barrett_letter_sideAweb.jpg)
This 1890 letter was sent from 36 Silver Street, Doncaster (St Leger Inn)
1891 Frederick died in December.
R.I.P.
Two letters sent 1885 and 1890 by Frederick to his daughter Mary Jane Winterschladen
This 1885 letter was sent from the Cheshire Cheese Inn, Doncaster (before the move to the St.Leger pub)
This 1890 letter was sent from 36 Silver Street, Doncaster (St Leger Inn)
1891 Frederick died in December.
R.I.P.
© 2013 Geoffrey Royle G4FAS
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