Barker Chronology.
St. Botolph’s Church, also known as Boston Stump, lies on the river Witham in Boston, Lincolnshire. The Barker infants were christened there.
12 September 1773. James Barker, born in Tealby. Probable parents: James and Dorothy Fox Barker, who marry 16 May 1769 in Tealby.
About 1791. Ann or Anne Cumbridge also spelled Cumberlidge born in Skirbeck Christened in Boston, 28 June 1786. Daughter of Joseph and Mary Cumberlidge.. The parish of Skirbeck nearly surrounds the town of Boston, to which it forms a fertile and pleasant suburb. It is divided into two townships. Skirbeck is on the north and east, and Skirbeck Quarter is on the south and west of the river Witham. They are in the Parts of Holland, Boston union and county court district, Skirbeck Wapentake and petty sessional division, Boston and Sibsey polling district of Mid Lincolnshire, and North Holland rural deanery of Lincoln archdeaconry. The whole parish contained 3404 inhabitants in 1881, and has 2030 acres of land, mostly in rich pastures, including its three fen allotments. Skirbeck has 1700 acres, and 2376 persons.
1804. James Barker and Anne Cumberlidge marry in Boston, Lincolnshire, according to parish records in Lincoln archives
Matilda Barker Clipson’s obituary says she had three sisters, Harriet, Emma, and perhaps Jane. Two brothers are James and Henry. A brother, Thomas, probably died young. James is in birth records and Henry is in 1841 census. Harriet signs Matilda’s marriage certificate and can be found later in the census. Emma, of course, is part of the emigration party that goes to Illinois.
1813. James Barker born in Boston, Lincolnshire. It is not clear what happens to him.
22 December 1815. Matilda Ann Barker born Boston, Lincolnshire. Christened 29 January 1816 as Anna Mathilda, daughter of James and Anne Barker, according to the St. Botolph parish records in the Lincolnshire Archives. James is listed as a laborer.
According to the St. Botolph parish records, there are a number of Barkers as well as Dickinsons living in Boston at the time.
29 December 1817. Harriet is christened at St. Botolph’s, Boston, also known as Boston Stump, pronounced in the Lincolnshire way—Stoomp.
1818/1819. Death certificate for Jane Barker, born Boston.
28 August 1819. Thomas Cumberlidge Barker is christened in Boston.
10 November 1820. Henry christened at St. Botolph’s. No christening record can be found. But he can be found in 1841 and 1851 census with his parents.
22 September 1823. Emma Barker christened. Born perhaps 21 October 1822.
2 August 1826. Thomas William Barker christened. Boston.
5 November 1840. Matilda Ann Barker marries the widower William Henry Clipson at St. Mary’s Newington, Southwark, in London. See the Clipson Family Chronology for their descendants.
1841 Census in civil parish of Boston, Hundred of Skirbeck. James Barker, age 65, farmer, at Mile House near Witham Bank and Hob Lane, as well as Duck Pond. Notice he’s not an agricultural laborer.
Also living with him are Ann, age 50; Emma, age 15; Henry, age 20. They are living near Spilsby Road and Tattershall Road. Hob Lane, their closest neighbor or perhaps the road they are on is next to the Frith Bank Drain, a canal that pours into the river Witham. The Carbys live on Frith Bank, as will Harriet after she marries. Mile House may have been one mile from the drain’s junction with other drains. Near them on Frith Bank is Sibsey live Harriet’s future husband, Samuel Sykes with his mother Elizabeth, age 47, a farm servant and her children Samuel, John, age 8 and Eleanor, age 6.
2 March 1847. Emma marries William Dickinson. See Dickinson Family Chronology for more about the Dickinsons as well as Emma and William Dickinson’s descendants.
1851. Census in the civil parish Boston, Town, Boston, Registration District Boston, Subregistration district, Boston. James Barker, 76, farmer with 20 acres, 7 Withal Bank; Ann, 66, farmer’s wife, born Skirbeck; Henry Barker, 30; Adaline Newton, a house servant, age 14. Also in 1851 census are Elizabeth Sykes, age 57, Samuel, age 27 and Hastings, age 20, living in Sibsey. They are all farm servants. Samuel soon marries Harriet Barker.
3 May 1853. New York, Matilda Barker Clipson and her family, and her younger sister, Emma Barker Dickinson and her family, arrive in America on the Siddons.
Harriet Barker marries Samuel Sykes of Frith Bank, near Boston, Lincolnshire
1861 Census. 104 Frith Drain, Skirbeck. James Barker, widower, age 87, a retired farmer, lives with Samuel Sykes, 39, a farmer of 14 acres, Samuel’s wife, Harriet, 44, and their daughter, Harriet Ann, aged 1. James’s wife, Ann, must have died. A servant, Eliza Hall, aged 12, lives there too. Other Hall families are on the same page.
30 April, 1863. There is a James Barker, age 89, in burial records, at St. Botolph.
1871 census. At 27 Horncastle Road in Bargate, Boston, Samuel Sykes, 49, is a beer seller. His wife Harriet is 52. Daughter Ann is 11. Living with them are Thomas Young, a widower and a laborer, 74, Thomas Clarke, 21, carpenter, William Danbury, 62, a laborer and also a widower.
1881 census. at 27 Horncastle Road, (King William IV). ward of Bargate, Boston, Samuel Sykes, 58, married, but no wife listed, a beer seller and beer house keeper, lives with five boarders, who are agricultural laborers or scholars.
April 1882. Harriet Barker Sykes dies.
1891 census at 27 St. Mary’s Cottage, in the ward of Bargate in Boston. Samuel Sykes, widower, 69, an orange hawker, lives as a boarder with John Hubbert, a publican and his wife Mary, and their son, his brother, a nephew, a visitor, all of whom share the same last name. A nice, Alice Hoyles, age 23, lives there too, as does Emma Cox, 19, a general servant.
1899 Samuel dies in Boston, Lincolnshire.