BARBEE ORIGINS

It has been reported that the Barbees came from France, but it seems more likely that they came from France at the time of William the Conqueror and from England to Virginia in the mid-seventeenth century. Barbee was sometimes spelled "Barby" during the Revolutionary War and in early Virginia and Kentucky Records. It has obviously changed more than that over the Centuries since the time when a Berchebi came to England from France with William the Conqueror. The Archivist of Northampton County England has traced this evolution of the Barby name as follows:1

Name Date Source

Berchebi 1806 Doomsday Book (William the Conqueror)

Beruby 12th Cent. Survey. Inquisition - Post Mortem

Berroby 1268 Assart

Bergebi temp. John B. M. , etc (British Museum)

Bereweby 1235 etc.

Berughby 1314-1419

Boreweeby 1316 F. A.

Boroughby,etc. 1550-1613

Barby 1508

Barby on the Hill Village on the Hill

A family by the name of Barby has been located from Northamptonshire and Devonshire England. There is a Barby of Washfield line taken form The Visitations of the County of Devon comprising the Heralds? visitations of 1531, 1564, and 1620 with additions by Lt. Col. J.L. Vivian2. There was a John Barby of Barby, Northamptonshire England, from whom there was ample opportunity for us to have descended. His son, Edmund, has three sons bearing the well used Barbee names of John, Thomas, and William. The Village of Barby is located in Nhants, England, five miles northwest of Daventry in Northamptonshire. There is also a village of Barbe about fifteen or twenty miles west of Dublin in the county of Kildare which indicates a strong possibility that there was also an Irish branch of the family3 from which we could have been descended.

We can speculate that our first Virginia ancestor could have been a William Barby who appears as one of the twenty head rights of George Morris and John Pigge for their purchase of 1000 acres in New Kent County, Virginia on December 14, 1660. This William Barbee could have come over even earlier than 1660 since headrights were often saved up and used much later for the securing of large land grants.

This William Barby could have had at least two sons: (1) Andrew Barbee from whom many Virginia and Kentucky Barbees are descended, and (2) William Barbee whose Will was recorded in Middlesex County Virginia, showing him to have been a prosperous planter who died in 1720/1. This William Barbee was the progenitor of the multitude of Barbees of Chatham, Orange, and Wake Counties in North Carolina.

ANDREW BARBEE OF STAFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA

FIRST VERIFIED ANCESTOR

The Barbee family of "Oakland", Danville Kentucky can be traced with certainty from Andrew Barbee of Stafford County, Virginia, according to an old family chart completed by * Daisy Barbee. Andrew died in Stafford County before September 11, 1699, the time of the Inventory of his Estate by his widow, Sarah Barbee, who, following her husband?s death had married Thomas James. The "Inventory" was presented at Court in November 1702 and included mostly livestock and among other things "two sizeable chests, and old sword and guns," also a certain amount of household gear. This inventory was done especially for the benefit of the two orphans, Thomas and Mary Barbee, who were not yet of age at the time of their fathers death. Thomas Barbee was born 1690 so he must have been round nine years old.

We know that Andrew Barbee and his wife, Sarah, had these two children, Thomas and Mary Barbee, because of a Gift of Deed the children received from George Mason II, dated April 9, 1701. The land given had been inherited form George Mason I who had come to Virginia in 1651/2 and settled near the Brents, Fowkes, and Peytons on land drained by Potomoc Creek and Accokeek Run and near the mouth of Aquia Creek. This had been the home plantation for the father, but, while retaining his leadership in the area, George Mason II moved his home plantation northward to Pohick on Doeg?s Neck and land on which "Gunston Hall" eventually would be built by his grandson, George Mason IV, who wrote the Bill of Rights for the United States onstitution.

The Gift of Deed reads as follows:

To whom those present shall come, I, George Mason of the County of Stafford in Virginia send greetings in our Lord God Everlasting - know ye that the said George Mason for divers good causes.. but more especially for the good will and respect that I have unto Thomas and Mary Barbee, son and daughter of Andrew Barbee, late of the said county deceased, do hereby these presents, give, grant,, and imprim unto the said Thomas and Mary to them and their heirs forever, 200 acres of land situated and lying upon the Acquickeek (Accokeek) Run in Stafford County, it being the uppermost end and part of a treater tract or dividend belonging to me the said George Mason upon Acquekeek aforesaid reserving to me and my heirs and assigns the benefit of a Lease of the said 200 acres of land which is grated and made by me unto Thomas James (Thomas and Mary Barbee?s step-father) during his own natural life...4

This great granddaughter of Elias Barbee of Green County, Kentucky was the first woman to attend Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Missouri in 1895. She retired in 1949 after 53 years as a member of the bar and 40 years in active practice. She had graduated cum laude in 1896 after winning the annual law senior?s thesis prize with 38 contenders. Called "the Pertia of St. Louis," she was "hailed at the turn of the century as St. Louis? first successful woman barrister, the champion of women in distress." (Clifton McEwen, "The Unforgettable Daisy Barbee, " St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 1, 1950, p 15)

It would seem that the Barbees and the Masons were very closely associated or even related at this early date. Later, about 1856, Frances Julia Barbee of "Oakland" would marry Presley Mason Talbot, a direct descendant of this George Mason II.

As already sated, Andrew?s widow, Sarah, had married Thomas James and they lived on Potomac Creek on land patented about the same time as their marriage. Their son (and Thomas Barbee?s half-brother), George James,"by inheritance, purchase and marriage..because of wealthy land holder in Stafford, Prince William, and Spotsylvania counties..He married Mary Wheeler, only child of John Wheeler, Gentleman (1684-1746) a vestryman in Overwharton Parish and had 10 children..."5

Note: there were 5 foot notes referenced, which I do not have.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Oaks/5200/masterbarbee.html