Papers of the Barbour family

This small subgroup largely comprises letters sent to various members of the Barbour family, which may have originated among Samuel Hill's papers (see EGT/2) or found their way into the Egerton family muniments after Elizabeth Barbour's move to Tatton. The Captain Gerald Barbour whose letters are included here seems to have belonged to an earlier generation of the Barbour family; he may have been the father or older brother of Samuel, although there is no clear evidence for this. Also represented here are Mary Barbour (Samuel's sister or sister-in- law) and Elizabeth Barbour herself.

The connection between the Barbour and Egerton families dates from the marriage of Elizabeth Barbour (d. 1743) to John Egerton (1649-1724) in 1707. Elizabeth was the daughter of Samuel Barbour, who had an estate at Prees near Whitchurch in Shropshire. There were clearly strong connections between the Egertons and the Barbours in the early 18th century: there is evidence of visits between the 2 households and of some supervision of the Barbour estates by John Egerton (eg. EGT/3/5/2/4). In addition, Elizabeth Egerton's mother, another Elizabeth Barbour, spent her last years as a widow living at Tatton with her daughter and her son-in-law.