My Town Monday late on a Tuesday ( because of the Bank Holiday !)

I apologise that my post this week is later than anticipated, this is due partly to the beautiful weather that we are recently experiencing ( keeping me outside) and a very annoying wireless connection that keeps falling over whenever I dare to look at the computer!

This week I thought that I would write a little bit about a man called Francis Barber and his connection with Bishops Stortford.

In 1768 one of Bishop's Stortfords Grammar schools had fallen into disrepair after the death of it's headmaster.There was no other accomodation available at the time and so the headmasters widow kindly allowed the school to move into their family home in Windhill ( next to St Joseph's church and now a solicitors office)





It was here, from approximately 1768 to 1772, that Dr Samuel Johnson, a Quaker and compiler of the first English Dictionary in 1755, sent his West Indian manservant, Francis Barber, to Bishops Stortford in order to learn Latin and Greek.



It is thought that Johnson perhaps chose Bishop's Stortford for Barber's education through his Quaker connections in the town, and is recorded as having said that he enjoyed his walks up Windhill when visiting Barber. His five years of schooling is supposed to have cost Johnson £300, a small fortune at that time, though what the younger pupils thought of this adult man sitting alongside them in class is hard to imagine.

Francis Barber (1735–1801) was born into slavery on a sugar plantation in Jamaica and brought to England as such by the plantation owner in 1750. After a brief education at Barton village school near Darlington in Yorkshire, he then entered the service of his owner's son, Richard Bathurst, a friend of Dr Johnson. When Johnson's wife 'Tetty' died in 1752, Bathurst sent Barber to work for him as a manservant, but two years later Bathurst's father died and in his will left Barber £12 and gave him his freedom from slavery.

Johnson treated him like a surrogate son, called him Frank instead of Francis and even had his portrait painted by an assistant of the President of the Royal Academy, James Northcote. But Barber was young and high spirited. With his new found freedom he ran away to London and worked as an apothecary's assistant at Cheapside. He still kept in touch with Johnson but in 1758 joined the Navy and served for two years on HMS Stag, protecting fishermen in the North Sea. When Johnson found out about this, his contacts at the Admiralty soon ensured Barber's discharge and in 1760 he continued his employment with Johnson.

After his schooling in Bishop's Stortford, Barber acted not only as Johnson's valet but also as his secretary and personal assistant. He married an English woman named Elizabeth (also known as Betsy) in 1776 and had four children, the family living with Johnson until his death in 1784. In his will Johnson left him a gold watch, an annuity of £70 and property at Burntwood near Lichfield, which he moved to and later became a teacher in the local school. Sadly, he was unable to manage his finances and when both he and his wife fell destitute he sold the gold watch and other keepsakes given to him by Johnson. Frank Barber died in Stafford Infirmary in 1801.

His son (also Samuel) became a primitive Methodist preacher in Staffordshire, and his descendants still live in the area.