MS 681 18 06

MS 681 18 06

Papers of the wider Barrett and related families: Papers of and relating to George Goodin Barrett (1792-1854)

Sub-series

George Goodin Barrett (1792–1854) was the youngest son of Samuel Barrett (1765–1794) and Elizabeth Barrett Williams (1754–1834). An officer in the British Army, he served in Portugal and Spain under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular Wars. During the British occupation of Paris, he was among the officers who sought to curb the spate of fatal duels between British officers and French duelists, notably wounding M. Prevost in a duel in December 1817.

He was recommended as cornet in the 4th Dragoons in 1810, promoted to lieutenant in 1811, transferred to the 14th Dragoons in 1814, and purchased a captaincy in the 23rd Dragoons in 1815. He presented a turtle to the Duke of Kent and received his promotion through the Duke. He sold his commission in 1823.

In 1821 he married Elizabeth (Eliza) Turner, with whom he had three children: Edward George, Richard, and Elizabeth Georgiana (Lizzie). They lived in Leamington, Warwickshire, where his maternal Waite family was based. After 1839, Eliza suffered from mental illness and was incapacitated until her death in 1886.

George inherited the estate of his aunt, Mary Barrett Lockhead, and returned to Jamaica around 1844. He served as Assistant Justice and Magistrate for St Ann and was proprietor of Retreat in the Pedro district, along with properties in Dixon, Dry Harbour, Runaway Bay, and Thatchfield. In 1849 he was elected to the Jamaica House of Assembly for St Ann.

Despite the legal disputes between their families, he remained on close and affectionate terms with his cousin Edward Moulton-Barrett until his death in May 1854.

See UCL: Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery

1809-1878

5 files and 4 items

This sub-series comprises papers of and relating to George Goodin-Barrett

A colour reproduction of a portrait of George Goodin Barrett appears in R A Barrett: The Barretts of Jamaica: the family of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, between pages 148-149