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Information on this John Barton and his descendants was provided by his descendant Stevan (contact here):

"Aged 13, John was sent to Ireland to apprentice to his Uncle Robert Malkin, a linen wholesaler in Dublin. John was in the linen trade "in its palmy days, and when the Dublin Linen Hall was tenanted by opulent merchants."

The following was extracted from a letter by Eamonn Mac Thomais, Bank of Ireland Historian:

'John was very much a man about town in the Social and Commercial Life of the City of Dublin and Ireland - He was a Director of the Grand Canal Co. and was also the first Chairman of the Dublin Kingston Railway Co. the second oldest Railway Co. in the World, dating back to 17th December 1834...'

John was Director of the Bank of Ireland from 1835 - 39; 1844 - 1845 and 1847 (Famine Years) and Governor 1852 - 54. Two years seemed to be the term for Governors and Directors. He was involved with Banks, Canals & Railroads."


Children


Stevan informs me of one daughter:

"Isabella Barton (1832-1913). Daughter of John Barton. Became the second wife of Edward Busteed-Moeran, whom she married in 1865. One side of the Moeran memorial at Killyleagh, Ireland, is dedicated to Isabella. The abstract from the will of Isabella Moeran 15th April 1913: ‘Probate of will with three codicils of Isabella Moeran late of Mapoon Road, Dundrum, County Dublin who 20 February 1913 granted at Dublin to Rev. Francis M Moeran and Archibald E. Moeran Esq. effects 705 pounds, 1 shilling and 4d."

This is mainly of interest because of the rare name Moeran; Ronald Barton (1901-1986) was friendly with a family by this name in London, and mentions them repeatedly in his diary.


The Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940 contains (here) a mention of a James Barton (1826-1913) who appears to be a son of John:

"Railway engineer. James Barton was born in Dublin in 1826, the eldest surviving son of John Barton, of Mary Street,(1) and his wife Jane (née Culley). His father, a linen and hosiery merchant with a warehouse in Jervis Street, was later to become a governor of the Bank of Ireland and a director of the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway Co. James was christened at Eustace Street Presbyterian church in Dublin on 8 July 1826.(2) He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1840 at the age of sixteen, and was one of the first two students to receive the new Diploma in Civil Engineering in 1843;(3) he obtained the BA degree in 1845.(4)During his time at Trinity, the professor of engineering was JOHN MACNEILL. After Macneill had left Trinity in 1846 to devote himself to railway construction, Barton worked under him first in Co. Wicklow, and then, from 1849 until 1861, as resident and then district engineer of the Great Northern Junction Railway Co, of which Macneill was engineer-in-chief. One of the company's most important undertakings was the Boyne Viaduct; responsibility for the design of this notable structure was later to become the subject of a heated public dispute between Macneill and Barton. In 1861 Barton succeeded Macneill as engineer-in-chief to the company,(5) and in 1863 set up a private consultancy in Dundalk. His clients included the Dundalk & Enniskillen (later Irish North Western), Derry Central, Clogher Valley, Dundalk & Greenore, Banbridge Extension, Strabane & Letterkenny(6) railways, as well as some of the Donegal light railways. In the early 1860s he was one of several engineers who prepared schemes for a Dublin railway junction.(7) He also projected and carried out works in Carlingford Lough, including the creation of a harbour of refuge, the building of the pier and station at Greenore, and the deepening of the channel between Warrenpoint and the Newry Canal. He is said to have been the originator of the Ireland-Scotland channel tunnel scheme and made a number of experimental borings near Larne. When over eighty years old he was still actively engaged in promoting the scheme.

Barton, described as 'still in active harness' in 1909,(8) retired in the same year. He died at his home, Farndreg House, Dundalk in January 1913 at the age of eighty-seven, and was buried in St Nicholas' churchyard in Dundalk. His obituarist in the Irish Builder wrote of his career: 'A man of truly marvellous energy and vigour of mind, he in the course of an exceptionally long life accomplished far more than the average achievement of the professional man in Ireland. Certainly no other engineer of his day had such a large and widely scattered practice or such manifold interests. He may be said to have been one of the pioneers of Irish railway construction and development, and many lines throughout Ireland are monuments to his energy and skill.' His pupils and assistants included GEORGE ARCHIBALD ERSKINE HICKSON , JOSEPH RICHARD PIKE MCALERY and JAMES PRICE . He was also prominent in church affairs.

James Barton was married twice; first, on 27 December 1849 to Catherine Frances, daughter of George Richard Golding, in St Peter's parish, Dublin, on 27 December 1849,(9) by whom he had two daughters and five sons, and second, in 1870, to Mary Honoria Elizabeth Hewson, daughter of the Rev. Francis Hewson of Dunganstown, Co. Wicklow, by whom he had a further six surviving children.(10) Sir JOHN GEORGE BARTON was his eldest son. Another son, Edward Barton, who was also an engineer, died in India within a few days of his father's death.

ICEI: elected member, 1861.(11)
Inst.CE: elected member, 1 March 1853; member of council, 1898-1903.

Addresses: Work: 3 Trevor Hill, Newry, 1850ca; Corn Exchange Buildings, Dundalk, 1863.
Home: Farndreg House, Dundalk, >=1862 until death.

See WORKS & BIBLIOGRAPHY.

References
All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituaries of Barton in IB 55, 1 Feb 1913, 91, andMin.Proc.Inst.CE 195 (1913-14), 368, and from and Canice O'Mahony, 'Iron rails and harbour walls: James Barton of Farndreg',County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal 22, no. 2 (1990), 134-149, which contains a photograph of Barton in old age on his tricycle. Another photograph of Barton is in IB 55, 15 Feb 1913, 97. See also the entry by Helen Andrews in Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. by James McGuire and James Quinn, 9 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 2009), I, 359-60.

(1) O'Mahony states that he was living at Stonehouse, Stillorgan Road, at the time of James's birth, but according to the directories he did not move there until circa 1830.
(2) www.familysearch.org.
(3) R.C. Cox, compiler, Trinity College School of Engineering: 'Graduates' in Engineering 1843-1992 (1993), unpaginated.
(4) G.D. Burtchaell & T.U. Sadleir, eds., Alumni Dublinenses (1935), 46.
(5) According to Thom's directories Barton was engineer-in-chief from 1861-1867 and consulting engineer from 1868-1870; O'Mahony writes that he ceased to be engineer-in-chief in 1864, but was retained as a consultant until 1870.
(6) IB 47, 20 May 1905, 341.
(7) DB 5, 1 Oct 1863, 159.
(8) IB 51, 4 Sep 1909, 559.
(9) www.familysearch.org.
(10) According to his 1911 census return only five of his children were then alive.
(11) admissions applications, I, 40; list of members in IB 12, 15 Aug 1870, 197."

Because James moved to Dundalk, I had previously speculated that he might be a descendant of Joseph Barton (b.1760) who at one point moved to Dundalk and was there in 1789, but Stevan's information about James's heritage suggests that this is pure coincidence.


Possibly a relative of James is mentioned in a post at http://genforum.genealogy.com/barton/messages/5236.html:
"Headstone in St. Leonard's Garden:
ELLEN BARTON of Church Street, Dundalk, died 14 December 1863, age 62, her daughter BRIDGET BRENNAN died 19 March 1869.
(Note: all headstones are leaning against the walls of the garden.)"