Individual Details

Probate

Probate with will
https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/essex-county-ma-probate-file-papers-1638-1881/image?volumeId=13744&pageName=1680:8&rId=30048200

Military

John Barker served from Andover as Sergeant in the alarm company of Capt. Benjamin Farnum, Col. James Frye’s regiment. He was a member of this company for return dated at Cambridge on 6 October 1775. He also saw one month nine days of service in Capt. John Adams’s company, Col. Samuel Johnson’s regiment, enlisted 29 September 1777 and discharged 6 November 1777, troops marching to reinforce the Northern army.1
John was at the Battle of Bunker Hill and is reported to have carried his Capt. Benjamin Farnum to safety after Farnum was severely wounded.2


On 28 September 1832, John Barker aged 79 years and resident of Andover applied for a pension based on his service in the Revolution. On 19 April 1775, he marched to Lexington in the company of Capt. Farnum, Col. Frye’s regiment. He served with the Massachusetts line for a term of eight months and was at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He served an additional month in 1777 in the company of Capt. Adams. He reported he was born in Andover in 1753 and has resided there since. John was credited with nine months of service and was granted a pension. His widow Phebe later received the widows’ pension.3


1 Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume 1, p 612
2 Abbott, Charlotte Helen, “Early Records of the Barker Family of Andover”, p 19
3 U. S. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, Case W15563