Author: Barre, William
Biography:
BARRE, William (1769-1834: ancestry.co.uk)
He was possibly the William Barre baptised on 8 Nov. 1767 at All Saints, Kingston upon Thames, the son of John Barre and Ann Forrest, who had married in Westminster in 1761. The lack of corroboration, his later Baptist background, and variant spellings present a range of other possibilities. However, details from his works listed here establish him as a schoolmaster and by 1829, Master of the Shoreditch Infants’ School (Original Hymns, 1829). His address, 15 New Hertford Place, New Haggerston, was given on the title page of Tales, Fables, &c. (1814) so it is clear that he was the William Barre who died at that address and was buried on 5 Sept. 1834, aged 65, at the dissenting Gloucester Chapel (Independent), New Haggerston. However, he clearly had Baptist sympathies and Original Hymns (1829) was harshly criticised for inculcating nonsense into young children about sin and the humanity of animals by the intellectual house journal of the Unitarians, the Monthly Repository. His address also proves he married Elizabeth (Betsy) Goodacre (1776-1846) on 7 July 1807 at St. Andrew’s, Hackney, London, since she is recorded as living with her children in the area in the 1841 Census (albeit at a different address). They had had at least two daughters and a son, William Henry Barre (1814-77), who was also schoolmaster: he published Poems (1842) and the title page identifies him as Master of the Finsbury Society Schools, City Road, a stone’s throw away from Shoreditch. He had married in 1836 and had a son in 1837 who died on 16 June 1838 at 15 Hertford Place, Haggerston, which had been the Barre family home since at least 1813. Elizabeth Barr (sic) also died there and was buried on 29 Apr. 1846 at St. Mary’s, Haggerston, aged 70. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Nov. 2022;NA, Records of Gloucester Chapel, New Haggerston [1820-37], RG 4/4315 [Burials]; Monthly Repository Dec. 1830, 827-9; GRO death certs. for William Henry Barre and Elizabeth Barr) AA