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Frederick Barrett
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 aka Grope Lane etc

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.
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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.)
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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.

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.
  • 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.
1828 May 28  The Oxford Journal reported : Frederick Barrett (17?), John Murphy, Thomas Harris and Edward Baines were brought before the Mayor under the Wilful Trespass Act charged with damaging a palin (fence) near Jericho, Oxford and fined."  ( Oh, dear ! )

1837 Feb 4  Frederick 27 married Sophia Barber (widow, nee Field), at St. John's churchWakefield.

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


Frederick Barrett studio pose apparently on horseback

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, m
ight 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]

1885 Letter by Frederick aged 75


This 1890 letter was sent from 36 Silver Street, Doncaster (St Leger Inn)

1890 Letter. Fred recovering from gout !


1891   Frederick died in December.

R.I.P.



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©  2013  Geoffrey Royle  G4FAS

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