BARBER, Thomas, of Rochester, Kent.

Very little is known of Barber but it is evident that he was a local man. The Thomas Barber who, along with his wife, Joan, was listed in the poll tax assessment of 1377 for Rochester may have been his father. Poll Taxes, ed. Fenwick, i. 415. It is also likely that he was a kinsman of Hugh Barber*, although the exact relationship is not known. In January 1424, while his Parliament was still in session at Westminster, Barber was named as one of the executors of the will of John Hodsole of Rochester. Archaeologia Cantiana, xiv. 223. Another responsible task was allotted to him in April 1425, when he was one of the arbiters appointed to settle a dispute over a rent in St. Margaret’s parish between John Potager* and the prior of St. Andrews. Centre for Kentish Studies, Rochester Diocese bishops’ registers, Langdon, DRb/Ar 1/8, f. 45v. In Trinity term that year, described as a ‘barber’, he was sued in the common pleas by the executors of Gilbert Pynchebeke of Canterbury for a debt of 40s., CP40/658, rot. 460d. although it was as a ‘yeoman’ that two years later he acted as one of the mainpernors of three local men, John Rysby, Thomas Chaloner and Richard Hamwell, who stood accused in the King’s bench of assaulting William Prat and his wife. KB27/661, rot. 60. The last reference to Thomas was in Easter term 1437 when he brought an action of debt for 16s. in the court of common pleas against a local labourer. CP40/705, rot. 432d.