Barbara BARKER
The Paper Trail
Let us start this research with the little, but important, evidence we hold for her. The burial record tells us that Barbara was buried on April 15th 1911 in grave 1131b, aged 65 years old and that she had been a patient at Manor Asylum.
We are fortunate that Manor Asylum has some visitor book records available and Barbara appears in them. We learn that the following people visited her:
- Theresa I Kennedy, a cousin from Fulham
- Virginia Barker, her sister who lived in Fulham and latterly in Streatham Hill
- Mrs William Pearce (?), a niece, recorded in error but an address of a cottage at Brentford Infirmary is given.
The visitor book also tells us that she was admitted to Manor on May 9th 1910, a detail backed up by the admission record.
So these are the clues which frame our research into Barbara.
Finding Barbara
Initially there were no immediate leads for Barbara until she arrived in the asylum in 1910. However, knowing that she had a sister named Virginia, who it would appear from the shared Barker surname, helped the research enormously. Finding Virginia took us directly to Barbara. Here is the journey that Barbara made from her birth in Norwich to Epsom.
In 1851, the census return for Lakenham, Norwich tells us that Barbara was living with her widowed father Benjamin and her sister Virginia. Barbara was aged 4 years and Virginia was 6 years old. Their father was a woollen draper, a master no less. A master woollen draper was a skilled merchant and shopkeeper who owned his business, dealing in cloth, tailoring, and often haberdashery.
Benjamin had married the girls’ mother on December 29th 1844 at St Peter of Mancroft, Norwich. She was Margaret Virginia Drake and she had been a minor (under age) at the time of their marriage. Both of their fathers were already deceased. Of interest, there is a Marriage Licence Bond dated December 27th 1844 for Benjamin and Margaret. These bonds were often used to replace the usual three weeks of banns being announced in a church. This suggests that the marriage was rushed.
Barbara is born
Barbara was born in 1847 in Norwich Norfolk. By 1849, her mother Margaret had died leaving Barbara and her sister Virginia as very young children. In 1851 we find the girls living with their father in Norwich.
By 1861, Virginia T and Barbara S. A. Barker, aged just 15 and 14 years old are boarding in a household. They are scholars. There is no evidence of a wider family supporting them with the head of household a Ruth Carver, a widow. It is worth noting that Barbara appears in an Ancestry family tree and there are a number of Carvers in the tree so there is likely a link.
School Mistress and Governess
In 1871, Virginia, aged 25 and her sister, Barbara aged 24 were living at 46 Brand Street, Greenwich, London. Barbara is listed as a schoolmistress. In 1881, at the same address, they were both working as governesses at a grammar school.
In 1891, at the same address, they are described as teachers (school).
For two young women who had lost their mother in childhood and were boarding away from home by their teens, this suggests education, independence and an ability to make their own way in the world.
In 1901, Barbara aged 54 and born in Norwich, is living in 94 Junction Road, Islington. She is described as the niece of a widow named Theresa Smith, who was also born in Norwich. We know Barbara’s mother had a sister named Theresa.
And where was Virginia? For the moment, she is still not possible to locate.
A Terrible Case of Drinking
On March 28th 1910 the following appears in the news:
Barbara gives evidence at an inquest into the death of her aunt Theresa, alongside an unnamed cousin, daughter to Theresa. Perhaps Barbara had moved in with Theresa to help her.
Two months later, Barbara is admitted to Manor.
Admission to Manor
On 9 May 1910, aged 63, she was admitted to Manor Asylum in Epsom. We have not yet discovered what happened to Barbara between 1901 and 1910.
Had her health deteriorated gradually over many years? Had the toll of care for her aunt caused her decline?
But one thing is clear. Barbara had not been forgotten by her family. During her relatively short stay at Manor, relatives came to see her, including her sister Virginia. Also we see that Theresa Kennedy visited, who is the daughter of aunt Theresa Smith. Those few handwritten entries in a visitor book tell us that family were still making the journey to see Barbara.
Barbara died at Manor on 10 April 1911, less than a year after her admission. She died of Lobar pneumonia, which she had suffered for four days. She had valvular disease of the heart.
The address given for her is 136 St. Olaf’s Road, Fulham, her aunt’s house perhaps
Five days later on April 15th 1911, she was buried in grave 1131b at Horton Cemetery. 
Virginia
For decades, the two sisters seem to have moved through life alongside one another: motherless children in Norwich, teenage scholars living away from home, then educated young women making their living as governesses in London.
By 1911 their paths had finally separated. Barbara was in Manor Asylum and Virginia was working as a servant at 11 Lydhurst Avenue, Streatham Hill, Brixton SW. She was now 64 years old (the head of household is a widow, Margaret Harriet Scarth).
Yet Virginia’s name in Barbara’s visitor book provides a small but poignant connection between them. After a lifetime in which the sisters appear repeatedly together, Virginia’s visit to Manor shows that their lives continued to be intertwined.