Jacob Barker

Jacob Barker (December 17, 1779 – December 26, 1871) was an American financier and lawyer.[1]

Jacob Barker
Member of the New York State Senate for the Southern District
In office
July 1, 1815 – June 30, 1816
Preceded byElbert H. Jones
Succeeded byWalter Bowne
Personal details
Born(1779-12-17)December 17, 1779
Swan Island, Maine, U.S.
DiedDecember 26, 1871(1871-12-26) (aged 92)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic-Republican
Spouse(s)
Elizabeth Hazard
​
​
(m. 1801; died 1866)​
RelationsGideon Gardner (half-brother)
Samuel Gray Ward (son-in-law)
Wharton Barker (grandson)
ParentsSarah Folger Gardner
Robert Barker
OccupationFinancier, lawyer, politician
Signature

Early life

He was born on December 17, 1779 in Swan Island, Maine, of Quaker parentage.[2] He was the son of Robert Barker (1723–1780) and Sarah (née Folger) Gardner (1739–1833), who was born on Nantucket. His mother was a widow of Hezekiah Gardner, with whom she had a son, Gideon Gardner (1759–1832), who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. His parents married in April 1763.

Barker was an extended relation of Benjamin Franklin through his mother, who was a cousin of Franklin's mother,[1] Abiah Folger Franklin (1667–1752), and grandfather Peter Folger.[2]

Career

He went to New York at the age of 16, engaged in trade, and soon amassed a considerable fortune. In May 1811, he hired Connecticut native Fitz-Greene Halleck,[3] who remained in his employ for twenty years. Early in the War of 1812 he was instrumental in securing a loan of $5,000,000 for the national government.[4][5][6]

In 1815, he founded the Exchange Bank of New York. He was a member of the New York State Senate in 1816, serving alongside Peter R. Livingston and Darius Crosby and representing the Southern District, which consisted of Dutchess, Kings, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties.[7]

Subsequently, he became interested in many other large financial institutions in the city, including the Life and Fire Insurance Company, on the failure of which in 1826 he, with a number of others, was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to defraud. At first he acted as his own lawyer, however, eventually eminent attorneys Benjamin F. Butler and Thomas Addis Emmet (1764–1827) were counsels for his defense. The jury disagreed on the first trial and convicted Barker on the second trial; but an appeal was granted and the indictment was finally quashed.

Preservation of Lansdowne Portrait

On August 23, 1814, First Lady Dolley Madison fulfilled U.S. President James Madison appeal to abandon the White House after rooftop observations confirming the British red coats approaching the horizon of the Executive Mansion.[8] Dolley Madison directed Paul Jennings, gardener John McGraw, and John Sioussat to remove the Gilbert Stuart oil painting of Colonial America's First President George Washington from the East Room.[9][10][11]

Tiber Creek Bearing North of U.S Congress House

After the removal of the iconic portrait from the White House event and reception room, the frameless life-size canvas painting was furnished to Jacob Barker and Robert Gilbert Livingston De Peyster for safe passage during the progression of the War of 1812. Mr. Barker and Mr. De Peyster routed the iconic portrait through Montgomery County while consistently distant to the boundary markers of the District of Columbia.[12][13] As the daylight hours retreated and a vortex storm approached Washington City, Mr. Barker and Mr. De Peyster sought refuge for the night at a farmhouse near Tiber Creek which was a tributary of the Potomac River.[14][15] The George Washington painting remained at the farmhouse as Mr. Barker and Mr. De Peyster proceeded their northern journey towards New York while eluding the British Royal Army and Naval commands who occupied the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay territories.[16]

On the eve to the Burning of Washington, Charles Carroll of Bellevue aided Dolley Madison's expeditious departure from the White House while meeting President Madison at a remote predetermined destination after departing the Executive Mansion on August 23, 1814. In 1843, Daniel Carroll, son of Charles Carroll of Bellevue, questioned the accuracy of statements published in the New York Evening Express and New York Herald concerning Charles Carroll's participation in the dismantling and removal of Lansdowne portrait from the White House East Room.[17][18]

New Orleans

He removed to New Orleans in 1834, became prominent in financial circles, was admitted to the bar, and practiced with success in insurance cases. In the 1840s he collaborated with Rowland G. Hazard to secure the release of free African-Americans who were being illegally detained in Louisiana under the assumption they were escaped slaves.[19] He was a majority stockholder in the first version of the St. Charles Hotel.[20] At the close of the American Civil War he was elected to the United States Senate, but as Louisiana had not been readmitted to the Union, he was not allowed to take his seat. In 1867, he was declared bankrupt, and in 1868, he was assaulted at his home in New Orleans.[21]

Barker published The Rebellion: Its Consequences and the Congressional Committee, Denominated the Reconstruction Committee, with their Action (1866).[2]

Personal life

On August 27, 1801, Barker was married to Elizabeth Hazard (1783–1866). She was the daughter of Thomas Hazard Jr. (1758–1828), a descendant of Thomas Hazard, one of the nine founding settlers of Newport, and Anna (née Rodman) Hazard (1762–1845).[22] Together, they were the parents of twelve children, including:[23]

  • Robert Barker (1802–1803), who died young.[22]
  • Robert Barker (1804–1830), who died at sea.[22]
  • Thomas Barker (1807–1876), who died unmarried.[22]
  • William Hazard Barker (1809–1879), who married Jeanette B. James[22][24]
  • Andrew Sigourney Barker (1811–1846), who died unmarried.[22]
  • Anna Hazard Barker (1813–1900), who married Samuel Gray Ward (1817–1907).[22][25]
  • Jacob Barker (1816–1842), who died unmarried.[22][23]
  • Elizabeth Hazard Barker (1817–1878), who married Baldwin Brower, then William T. Van Zandt, then John McCaulis.[22]
  • Sarah Barker (1819–1908), who married John Caile Harrison (1812–1859), then William Henry Hunt (1823–1884), who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy.[22]
  • Abraham Barker (1821–1906),[26] who married Sarah Wharton (1821–1866),[23] then Katharine Crane.[22]
  • Mary Barker (1823–1826), who also died young.[22]
  • John Wells Baker (1825–1825), who died young.[22]

Barker died on December 26, 1871 after spending the last few years of his life with his son in Philadelphia.[1] He was eulogized in The New York Times as follows:

His career was a very stormy one, the qualities of the man calling down upon him the envy and malice of inferior people with whom he was brought in contact. But as an example of rectitude and upright dealings, carried consistently through the most gigantic operations and disastrous losses, there is no brighter page in the merchant annals of our country than his business life.[1]

Descendants

Through his son Abraham, he was the grandfather of Wharton Barker (1846–1921), the Populist Party Presidential candidate in 1900.

References
  1. "OBITUARY. Jacob Barker". The New York Times. December 27, 1871. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  2. Barker, Jacob (1855). Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana: With Historical Facts, His Financial Transactions with the Government and His Course on Important Political Questions, from 1800 to 1855. Washington. OCLC 665224729. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  3. Hallock, John W. M. The American Byron: Homosexuality and the Fall of Fitz-Greene Halleck. University of Wisconsin Press, 2000: 43. ISBN 0-299-16804-2
  4. "ABRAHAM BARKER.; Tribute to a Remarkable Man, the Son of a Remarkable Father". The New York Times. April 10, 1906. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  5. Barker, Jacob (December 26, 1815). "To James Madison from Jacob Barker, 26 December 1815". National Archives Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  6. Barker, Jacob (December 26, 1815). "Jacob Barker to James Madison, December 26, 1815". U.S. LOC Manuscript Division. United States Library of Congress.
  7. Hough, Edward (1858). The New York Civil List: Containing the names and origin of the civil divisions, and the names and dates of election or appointment of the principal state and county officers from the Revolution to the present time. Weed, Parsons and Co. p. 122. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  8. Madison, James (August 23, 1814). "From James Madison to Dolley Madison, 23 August 1814". National Archives Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  9. Barker, Jacob (1855). "Record of Mrs. Madison" [Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana]. Internet Archive. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. pp. 110–112.
  10. "Dolley Madison's Extract - Tuesday, August 23, 1814" [Resource 6: Saving Washington] (PDF). NYHistory.org. New-York Historical Society.
  11. "Saving the Washington Portrait". WhiteHouseHistory.org. White House Historical Association.
  12. Baker, Marcus (1897). "The Boundary Monuments of the District of Columbia". Internet Archive. Washington, D.C.: Records of the Columbia Historical Society.
  13. Woodward, Fred E. (1907). "A Ramble along the Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia with a Camera". Internet Archive. Washington, D.C.: Records of the Columbia Historical Society.
  14. Barker, Jacob (1855). "Portrait of Washington" [Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana]. Internet Archive. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. pp. 109–110.
  15. Owens, H. Malcolm (April 23, 1937). "A History of Tiber Creek, Washington, D.C." Internet Archive. University of Maryland Libraries.
  16. Barker, Jacob (1855). "Explanation of Saving the Portrait" [Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana]. Internet Archive. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. pp. 116–118.
  17. Madison, D.P. (February 11, 1848). "Letter from Dolley Madison to Robert G. L. De Peyster (February 11, 1848)". EncyclopediaVirginia.org. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
  18. Barker, Jacob (1855). "Letter to Daniel J. Carroll - New Orleans, February 8, 1843" [Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana]. Internet Archive. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. pp. 112–116.
  19. Rowland Gibson Hazard, Rhode Island Manufacturer, Politician, and Philosopher, University of Rhode Island Library, Special Collections and University Archives, 2007
  20. Barker 1855, p. 223.
  21. "Assault on Jacob Barker in New-Orleans". The New York Times. May 1, 1868. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  22. Robinson, Caroline Elizabeth (1896). The Hazard Family of Rhode Island, 1635-1894: Being a Genealogy and History of the Descendants of Thomas Hazard ... p. 197. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  23. Jones, Charles Henry (1886). Genealogy of the Rodman Family, 1620 to 1886. Allen, Lane & Scott. pp. 71–72. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  24. Harvard College (1780-) Class of 1863 (1888). Report of the Secretary. John Wilson and Son. p. 200. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  25. "DIED. Ward". The New York Times. November 18, 1907. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  26. "ABRAHAM BARKER KILLED.; Philadelphia's Oldest Banker Fell from Car and Fractured His Skull". The New York Times. April 9, 1906. Retrieved October 31, 2017.

Bibliography
Political offices
Preceded by
Elbert H. Jones		 Member of the New York State Senate
for the Southern District
July 1, 1815 – June 30, 1816		 Succeeded by
Walter Bowne
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