Welcome!
UPDATE: Recently some image links broke on the site. I think I have repaired them all now, but let me know if I missed any.
My name is David B. H. Barton and this 'wiki' is an online encyclopaedia of my family history. My family has been interested in its own history for generations, and we've amassed a huge archive of material. The lion's share of this information has been painstakingly gathered, over several decades, by my father Nicholas J. Barton. My job, as I see it, is to digitize it, organize it, and share it with the handful of people who might be interested in it. Still, there is some original research of mine on here as well. I don't have much time to add more at the moment though.
The name Barton is Anglo-Saxon in origin, meaning either 'barley farm' or 'lands of the manor or meadow', depending on who you ask. It's quite a common place-name in England and there are probably many different Barton families hailing from different places called Barton. There's even a Barton Historical Society to help keep track of them all, and they run a DNA project too. If you are a U.S. Barton looking for clues to your origin you'll probably have better luck with their site than mine.
My particular Bartons can be traced back to Ivegill in Cumbria (yellow on the map below) in the 18th century, and evidently they were there nearly two centuries before that. Ivegill is only 11 miles NNW of a tiny hamlet called Barton (red on the map) which was once a sizeable parish, and it's possible that the Ivegill Bartons were previously from there. However there were also wealthy Bartons living not far away in Ormside Hall (blue) and possibly also Hartsop Hall (green), and a document exists which links the Ormside Bartons to lands in Yorkshire and Northumbria, and to Barton families in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Essex. It's all very intriguing. In fact is it possible that the hamlet and parish of Barton were named after the Barton family of Ormside and Hartsop Halls who owned property throughout it?
View The Barton Triangle in a larger map
In 2011 I learned of a second line of Bartons supposedly coming from Ivegill. Early members of this family used many of the same first names as early members of my own branch, and like my branch they have links to Bartons Farm in Thomas Close, but we have yet to find really solid proof connecting them. A modern American descendant once claimed that it is an old family tradition that they are descendants of the Scottish 'pirate'/privateer Sir Andrew Barton (1466-1511), a connection that would be fun to prove. While no direct ancestry can be demonstrated, there may indeed be some relation: one of Sir Andrew's ancestors, Robert de Barton, a royal official of Edward I, moved to Carlisle from Yorkshire and might perhaps have been the ancestor of many Cumbrian Bartons.
In my own line, there have been - down the centuries - many interesting Bartons, with quite a few famous friends. But my ancestors have also married into many other interesting families: Broadbents, Elliotts, Dougans, Boileaus, Rickmans and Hornes, for instance. Thanks to my Boileau ancestor, I can even trace a descent from William the Conqueror and beyond. Many other families also join the tree - not necessarily my direct relatives but equally interesting nonetheless: the Fiennes, Youngs, Beamishes, Moules, Hacks, Venns, Thorntons, and Grenfells for instance. This makes 'Barton History' a rather poor name for the site, but a better one has yet to suggest itself.
For those wondering about the wheel in the logo at the top-left of the page: it represents the 'horizontal flax wheel' invented by early patriarch Bernard Barton of Carlisle (1728-1773). Oddly enough a very similar symbol appears on older inscriptions, one on a house, one on a bell, both next to the letters IB, thought to be the initials of Bernard's yeoman grandfather John Barton (d.1720).
If you don't know where to start... well, pride of place in this collection should probably go to the memoirs of my great great grandmother Emily Elliott (1839-1924). These are now fully annotated with hyperlinks, maps and illustrations. Take a look here.
Do please get in touch if you have any questions or information to add, or simply to introduce yourself. It's always interesting to meet new distant relatives or connected family researchers, and if you'll let me I'd be pleased to add you to my Living Connections page.
My Barton lineage
[gx7] John Barton (d.1720) and Isabell, parents of
[gx6] John Barton of Ivegill (d.1747), with Ann (d.1748), parents of
[gx5] Bernard Barton of Carlisle (1728-1773), with Mary Porter (1732-1786), parents of
[gx4] John Barton the Elder (1754-1789), with Elizabeth Horne (1760-1833), parents of
[gx3] John Barton Senior (1789-1852), with Fanny Rickman (1807-1842), parents of
[gx2] Rev. John Barton of Cambridge (1836-1908), with Emily Elliott (1839-1924), parents of
[gx1] Rev. Cecil Barton (1870-1909), with Esther Broadbent (1873-1959), parents of
[gx0] Ronald Barton (1901-1986).
About the website
I've not had much time of late to maintain and improve this site, and I've noticed a lot of features fall out of date as technology 'improves'. Interactive maps and documents, once embedded in pages, seem--in many though not all cases--to no longer work. It'll take more time than I have right now to fix everything, so apologies.
In addition, Wikispaces is now no longer free. I looked into putting a Paypal donations button on the site for those wishing to contribute towards its upkeep, but this is apparently no longer possible unless I register myself as a charity, with all the bureaucracy that that involves.
If you wish to become an active contributor to this wiki, or merely be added to my Living Connections page, I'd be very pleased to hear from you; please contact me by email.
If you're on Twitter you can follow @BartonHistory for news and updates, also (hopefully) visible below, e.g. about the articles I'm working on or the people who get in touch with me:
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