BARBER, Stephen

It is impossible to prove a connexion between Barber and Robert Barbour, a member of a commission appointed to collect a tax in Cambridge in 1393,3 CFR, xi. 75, 99. or between him and Richard Barbour, a barber who resided there in 1430.4 CPR, 1429-36, p. 20. Active in the borough by the beginning of Henry V’s reign, he served at least two terms as one of its bailiffs, and in about 1423 he participated, in his capacity as a local tax collector, in a ‘great congregation’ between the burgesses and the university authorities.5 ‘Cross Bk.’, f. 13. It was also in the 1420s that he sat in his only known Parliament. Leicester was the venue for both sessions of this assembly, for which Barber received 71 days’ wages.6 Cambridge bor. recs., treasurers’ acct. 1425-6, City/PB Box X/70/4. Although this total included time spent travelling to and from Leicester, it suggests an impressive attendance record since the Parliament sat for just 65 days.

In July 1426 and again in early 1435, Barber was among those considered for jury service at gaol delivery sessions in Cambridge although in the event he was not a juror on either occasion.7 JUST3/8/12, rot. 3; 15, rot. 23. There is no evidence for his activities after the mid 1430s. Possibly Thomas Barber, one of the treasurers of Cambridge in 1483-4, and William Barber, a goldsmith who was the wealthiest of the town’s inhabitants while mayor in the early sixteenth century, were his descendants.8 Treasurers’ acct. 1483-4, City/PB Box X/71/1.