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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Barrow (Barro, Barrows), John

by Mattie Erma E. Parker, 1979

ca. 1643–10 June 1718

John Barrow (Barro, Barrows), colonial official, moved to Albemarle in 1662 or earlier, probably from Virginia.

Barrow was a member of the council of the Albemarle colony and ex officio justice of the courts held by the council (1689–91). He was justice of the county court of Albemarle (1692–94) and justice of Perquimans Precinct court (1689–90 and 1697–1703). In 1708 he was a member of the lower house of the assembly.

Barrow lived in Perquimans Precinct, where he held at least three hundred acres of land on Yawpim Creek. He was a Quaker and an active member of the Perquimans Monthly Meeting, which occasionally met at his house.

Barrow married Sarah Sutton on 1 Feb. 1668/69. The couple had nine children: Johannah, Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah, William, John, Jr., George, James, and Joseph. Johannah married Jenkin Williams, and Ann married John Bently, son of Richard Bently. All the sons lived to adulthood and married. William's wife was Elizabeth Cook, widow of John Cook. The first wife of John, Jr., was named Sarah; the second was Rachel Larance, daughter of William Larance. Joseph was also married twice, first to Jane (or Jean) Nicholson and second to Sarah Peirce. James, like his father and two of his brothers, chose a wife named Sarah, whose maiden name is not known. George married Elizabeth Turner.

Two of Barrow's sons died about a week after he did—John, Jr., on 15 June and James on 18 June 1718. The records indicate that Johannah and Joseph were the only children surviving past June.

References:

J. Bryan Grimes, ed., Abstract of North Carolina Wills (1910).

Guilford College Library (Greensboro), for MS Quaker records.

J. R. B. Hathaway, ed., North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, 3 vols. (1900–1903).

William Wade Hinshaw, comp., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, vol. 1 (1936).

North Carolina State Archives (Raleigh), for Albemarle Book of Warrants and Surveys (1681–1706), Albemarle County Papers (1678–1714), Perquimans Births, Marriages, Deaths and Flesh Marks (1659–1739, 1701–1820, 2 vols.), and Perquimans Precinct Court Minutes (1688–93, 1698–1706, 2 vols.).

Mattie Erma Edwards Parker, ed., North Carolina Higher-Court Records, 1670–1696 and 1697–1701 (1968, 1971).

William S. Price, Jr., ed., North Carolina Higher-Court Records, 1702–1708 (1974).

William L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1886).

Ellen Goode Winslow, History of Perquimans County (1931).

Additional Resources:

North Carolina. Secretary of State. Abstract of North Carolina wills. Raleigh, E. M. Uzzell & co., state printers. 1910. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/abstract-of-north-carolina-wills/2148937 (accessed April 2, 2013).

William L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1886): https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/historical-publications/colonial-records

Ellen Goode Winslow, History of Perquimans County (1931): http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/item.aspx?id=wih

Subjects: 
Colonial period (1600-1763)
Biographies
Public officials
Authors: 
Parker, Mattie E. E.
Origin - location: 
Coastal Plain
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1979 | Parker, Mattie E. E.