Barry, James

Published: 16 August 2018
Updated: 10 Mar 2020
Researchers: Andrew Millard, Teresa Rust
Editor: Teresa Rust

Contributed by Dr. Andrew Millard in July 2018:
According to Christopher Gerrard, Pam Graves, Andrew Millard, Richard Annis, and Anwen Caffell, Lost Lives, New Voices: Unlocking the Stories of the Scottish Soldiers at the Battle of Dunbar 1650, (England: Oxbow Books, 2018), on page 248, James is categorized as: Probable [that he is a Dunbar prisoner transported on the Unity] Barry, James. Residences: Kittery, ME. Appears: 1662. D.1676. Granted land at the same time as Scots who worked at the Great Works. [Banks; DR] For explanations of the category, abbreviations and references see List of Dunbar prisoners from Lost Lives, New Voices.

First Generation in the New World

1. JAMES¹ BARRY, was born presumably in Scotland and was killed by Native Americans in Kittery [now South Berwick], Maine on 16 Oct 1675. ¹ He married

Biographical Notes:
“One of Agnew’s closest friends, Scotsman James Barry, died during an Indian 5 attack in 1675.”
He lived in Kittery, Maine.
James Barry, Mass. Historical Society Paper October 1927
Documents and/or publications that identify James BARRY as a Scottish prisoner of war from the Battle of Dunbar on 3 Sep 1650:

Massachusetts Historical Society paper written in October 1927 and available through The Essex Genealogist.

Scottish Prisoners and Their Relocation to the Colonies at Geni.com (I am not yet sure of the source for this information at Geni. It looks very similar to the MA Hist. Soc. paper c1927.) “In Kittery Maine, there is a Unity parish, doubtless from the prisoners, who were sent there to work in the sawmills. Approximately 15 Scots worked there. They were as follows: …James Barry“

Nyven Agnew, also called Nivin Agneau, is called “Nivin the Scot” in the Dover tax-list of 1659, shortly after he got his freedom. He administered the estate of James Barry, another Scotchman of South Berwick, Me., about 1676, and lived on the land that Kittery had granted to Barry. Agnew’s will, 16 September 1687, mentions debts due him from James Barry, his predecessor. He divides his property between Peter Grant and John Taylor, two other Scotchmen. In the inventory of his estate is this item, “To a sword that Peter Grant did say he would give ten shillings for.” Neither Barry nor Agnew married. Everett S. Stackpole and Lucien Thompson, History of the Town of Durham, New Hampshire (Oyster River Plantation) (Published by vote of the Town, 1913), 1:76.

July 1, 1703, John Key senior, aged about 70 years, deposed that James Barry, Niven Agnue and John Taylor owned in succession a farm in upper Kittery, now South Berwick. Stackpole, History of the Town of Durham, 1:81.

Probably worked at sawmills in Kittery, Maine, “on the Asbenbedick, now Great Works, River in which Becx and Co. of London had an interest” under Richard Leader, former manager of ironworks. In the same year when Leader left, “grants of land were made to some of them [the Scots exiles] in 1656, indicating that they had been released.” Others in this group included Niven Agnew, Alexander Cooper, William Furbush, Daniel Ferguson, Peter Grant, George Gray, William Gowen, David Hamilton, Thomas Holme, John Key, Alexander Maxwell, John Neal, John Ross, John Taylor, William Thomson, and James Warren.” Charles Banks, “Scotch Prisoners Deported to New England by Cromwell, 1651-1652,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 61 (1927): 15.

BARROW, Barry, 1 James, Berwick. He had grants in Kit. 1662, 1673. Lists 25, 298. Wm. Gowen had James Barrow at his house and cured him of scurvy. K. by Ind in. 16 Oct. 1675. Adm. 4 Apr. 1676 to Niven Agnew, who mar. his wid. and liv. on his farm, next north of those shown in Stackp. Kittery, p. 133. No ch. Agnew’s will, calling him >my predecessor,= devised his lands. Sybil Noyes, et al., Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (Portland, Me.: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1928-39), p. 78.

At court in Wells, April 4, 1676: Lyberty granted to Nivine Nignow to Improve James Barrows Land untill the Court take further order, hee allowing for the uss of It such a Consideration as is meete.

At court in Wells, July 4, 1676: Pouer of Administration granted unto Nivine Nignow of the Estate of James Barrow deceased, who is Injoyned to bring in a true Inventory thereof & to bring in security sufficient to respond that estate unto the next Court of Assotiates houlden for this County on the 2und Tusday of September next Insewing. Ibid., 2:315.

See: Diane Rapaport, “Scots for Sale, Part II: Scottish Prisoners in Seventeenth-Century Maine and New Hampshire,” New England Ancestors (Holiday 2004), 27, which discussed James Barry and his close friend, Niven Agnew: One of Agnew’s closest friends, Scotsman James Barry, died during an Indian 5 attack in 1675. Agnew administered the estate, not only taking possession of Barry’s farm below the Great Works, but also marrying his friend’s widow. When Agnew died childless, about 1687, his will granted all of his property to two daughters of Scottish neighbors John Taylor and Peter Grant.

1. Diane Rapaport, “Scots for Sale, Part II: Scottish Prisoners in Seventeenth-Century Maine and New Hampshire,” New England Ancestors (Holiday 2004), 27 [↩]