Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Grimsby Mich. 1397-8; mayor 1413-14.1

Biography

Barber had already represented Grimsby in Parliament when, in January 1395, and again in the following August, he sat on local juries set up to investigate two separate cases of malicious wounding. He had by then joined forces with his fellow merchant, Robert Burton*, with whom he bought wine to the value of £10 at Bordeaux, as well as expending a further 40 marks on additional consignments at Hull and Grimsby. Their partnership proved of short duration, however, since a dispute ensued over the division of the profits. At some point before 1402, a local man named John Rysum chose Barber to execute his will; and it was thus that he became involved in litigation in the court of common pleas for the recovery of a debt of £5 13s.4d. from one John Bate of Wakefield. No more is heard of Barber after he held office as mayor of Grimsby at the beginning of Henry V’s reign.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

• 1. E368/171; HMC 14th Rep. VIII, 288.
• 2. Lincoln Rec. Soc. lvi. 233, 235; CCR, 1401-5, p. 77; E. Gillett, Grimsby, 25.