Arthur Barrett Records

1397 WFCHS

Inventory created by Archives Staff 05/20.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers.

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright.

EXTENT: 1 volume. 1 folder, 2 DVDs

CREATOR: Barrett, Arthur, 1680?-1745

DATE: 1703-1903

ALTERNATIVE FORM AVAILABLE: Digitized 2007. Digital copies (PDF and JPEG) are kept on DVD with the collection. Online access to Arthur Barrett’s account book is also available through the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives Digital Collections: https://cdm17303.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17303coll4/id/905/rec/1

SCOPE AND CONTENT: This collection contains the account book of Arthur Barrett, a tailor. Barrett’s accounts run from 1703-1735 and show various items of clothing he made for people while he lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Barrett moved to Frederick County, Va. in 1739.

Arthur Barrett died in 1745 but his family held on to the account book and subsequently used it to record births and deaths. These records can be found in pages 18-25 and 32-37. The earliest entry is for 1707 and the latest for 1903.

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: Arthur Barrett was born in England in approximately 1680 and emigrated to the American Colonies around 1700. Barrett, who was a Quaker, settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, one of the three counties established by William Penn in 1682. On June 6, 1705, Barrett married Lydia Chambers.

Records show that Barrett transferred membership to the Hopewell Friends Meeting House in March 1739, when he and his family moved to Frederick County along with a number of other Quaker families in a wave of new settlement organized by business partners Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan. Ross and Bryan, who were also Quakers from Chester County, had petitioned the Council of the Colony of Virginia for 100,000 acres of land in the Northern Shenandoah Valley in 1730. The subsequent grant provided these Quaker families with abundant, fertile tracts to establish themselves and future generations.

Barrett’s land amounted to just over 700 acres west of the Apple Pie Ridge Road between Whitehall and Cedar Grove. In addition to farming this land, Barrett also worked as a tailor. Upon Barrett’s death the land was shared among his sons and wife. He is buried with his wife in the Hopewell Friends Meeting House.

RELATED MATERIAL: Estate of Arthur Barrett, April or 4 June 1745, Frederick County Will Book 1 (1743–1751), 49–50.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cartmell, T. K. Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and their Descendents: A History of Frederick County, Virginia from its Formation in 1738 to 1908. Berryville, VA: Chesapeake Book Co., 1963; Quarles, Garland. Some Old Homes in Frederick County. Prepared for the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, 1971; Powers, A. Nicholas. “Friends in High Places: Quaker Furniture Makers in Virginia’s Northern Shenandoah Valley.” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, vol. 38, 2017. URL: https://www.mesdajournal.org/2018/friends-in-high-places-quaker-furniture-makers-in-virginias-northern-shenandoah-valley/#_edn42

CITE AS: Arthur Barrett Papers, 1397 WFCHS , Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA.

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society.

ORGANIZATION:

Barrett, Arthur Account Book/family notes, 1703-1903, 1 volume (136 pages, some blank) ; 19 cm,  manuscript.

Article, Powers, A. Nicholas. “Friends in High Places: Quaker Furniture Makers in Virginia’s Northern Shenandoah Valley.” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, vol. 38, 2017

DVD, Account Book of Arthur Barrett, PDF, 2007

DVD, Account Book of Arthur Barrett, JPEG, 2007