Philip Barnes (c1752-1809) & Elizabeth De Carle (1752-1830)
Philip Barnes was born about 1752. Later generations of the Barnes family were described as an old Norfolk family who claimed descent from Robert Barnes (d.1540), the reformer and martyr.
Philip Barnes was listed as a bricklayer at All Saints Green in the 1783 Norwich Directory.
In 1787 there were three indentures relating to property in All Saints. One, dated 14 July, was the conveyance of a messuage in All Saints, Norwich with buildings from John Barnes late of Norwich, now of the cathedral precincts, Norwich, whitesmith, to Philip Barnes of All Saints, Norwich, bricklayer. Philip Barnes, a bricklayer, also leased other properties from John Barnes (13 July) and from Thomas Dove, a carpenter (21 December).
Elizabeth De Carle was born on 14 July 1752 and baptised on 19 July at St Giles, Norwich. She was the daughter of Robert De Carle (1724-1796) and Ann Carr (1725-1809), who had married on 20 July 1747 at St Lawrence’s church, Norwich. Robert De Carle was from a family of stone and marble masons, bricklayers and builders in Norwich. His father was John De Carle (1692-1746), whose family had originally been Huguenots. His mother was Elizabeth Brettingham (1692-1767), who was the daughter of Lancelot Brettingham (c1665-1727), a bricklayer, and Elizabeth Hillwell. Lancelot’s eldest son, Robert (1695-1786) took over the family business and was sheriff of Norwich in 1764; Lancelot’s younger son was the noted Palladian architect Matthew Brettingham.
The De Carle family lived “without St Giles” (which is now called Heigham).
Elizabeth De Carle’s brother, Robert Brettingham De Carle (1748-1791) [fn1], “an eminent modeller whose skill was unrivalled”, studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and exhibited wax portraits at the 1785 Exhibition. While studying, Robert became friends with James Sowerby, the author of English Botany, who in 1786 married their sister Anne De Carle (1764-1815), herself an accomplished artist. Another brother, John De Carle (1750-1828) built Blackfriars Bridge in Norwich (1783) and a number of Norfolk country houses to designs by Sir John Soane, as well as a number of memorial tablets. The family also took on a business in Bury in 1792.
Philip Barnes and Elizabeth De Carle were married at Heigham, Norwich 27 December 1787 – “last week was married, at Heigham, Mr Philip Barnes, bricklayer, to Miss E De Carle with a genteel fortune” (Norfolk Chronicle ); “Thursday Mr Barnes to Miss De Carle, daughter of Mr De Carle, stonemason, Norwich” (Ipswich Journal).
Elizabeth and Philip had four children, who were baptised at All Saints, Norwich: Ann on 19 January 1789, Philip 22 July1792, Elizabeth on 7 June 1790, and Sarah Charlotte on 11 September 1796.
Philip Barnes, bricklayer and freeholder of All Saints in the Conisford ward was listed in the 1790 and 1806 Norwich electoral register, and the 1802 Norwich directory (address 18 All Saints’ Green). Probably the Barnes family lived in a modern brick town house, similar to those which still survive in All Saints Green and possibly built with bricks manufactured by their family business, with the brick works in the area behind the terraced housing.
In 1800, Philip Barnes, Robert De Carle, and Nathaniel Locke submitted estimates for a transverse section of middle pier and plan of platform of a timber bridge at Hellesdon, and for taking down the bridge at St Michael at Coslany and erecting a new stone bridge. (Norfolk Record Office)
In 1805 Philip was appointed a Common Councilman for the Conisford ward. In 1809 he is listed as paying an annual subscription to the benevolent association for the relief of decayed tradesmen, their widows and orphans.
Phillip died on 5 June 1809 – “He had just given directions to his workmen, and complaining of being ill, expired in about half an hour.” (Ipswich Journal 10 June 1809). “On Monday last, on All Saints’ Green, in this city, aged 57, Mr Philip Barnes, an eminent bricklayer, and one of the nominees for Conisford ward. He was an affectionate husband, a tender father, and sincere friend; his strict integrity, mildness of disposition, and goodness of heart rendered him in life beloved and respected, and in death deeply lamented, not only by his family and friends, but by all those in the circle of his acquittance.” (Norfolk Chronicle, 10 June 1809). He was buried on 11 June 1809 at All Saints, Norwich.
In his will Philip’s property was left to his wife and son Philip Barnes, and six hundred pounds each to his daughters Ann Barnes, Elizabeth Barnes, and Sarah Barnes.
The week after Philip’s burial Norwich newspapers carried this notice: “Elizabeth Barnes, widow of the late Philip Barnes, bricklayer and lime burner, embraces the earliest opportunity of returning her sincere thanks for the many favours conferred on her late husband. She proposes, by the advice of her friends, to carry on the trade, hoping to continue it for the benefit of her son, and respectfully solicits the support of her late husband’s friends and the public, not doubting that, by engaging an able assistant as a superintendent, and employing the same experienced workmen, the business will be conducted in a man equally satisfactory to those who may oblige her with their commands, as it has hitherto been. All orders will be punctually attended to, and gratefully acknowledged. All Saints, Norwich. 12 June 1809.”(Norfolk Chronicle). The 1811 Norwich Directory listed “Barnes and Son, Bricklayers, All Saints Green”.
In October 1810 Elizabeth’s two eldest daughters were married on the same day: Ann married her cousin Charles William De Carle of Bury, and Elizabeth married William Freeman, carver and gilder, of Norwich.
In 1814, Philip Barnes junior married Harriet Futter, daughter of William Futter of Ketteringham.
The youngest daughter, Sarah Charlotte, married Joseph Samuel Parkinson, a solicitor, in March 1817. She died, aged 22, on 2 September 1819, “much lamented and respected”. A fine marble monument was erected in All Saints’ Church “sacred to the memory of Sarah Charlotte De Carle Parkinson…youngest daughter of Philip and Elizabeth Barnes, many years respected inhabitants of this parish”.
Elizabeth’s daughter Ann’s husband died in 1822 and, in 1826, Ann married again: “at Bury, Mr [Henry] Clifford, of the Theatre Royal, Norwich to Mrs De Carle, widow of the late Mr W De Carle, stone mason of Bury” (Norfolk Chronicle).
Elizabeth died in 1830, aged 79 and was buried at All Saints, Norwich.
Philip and Elizabeth’s two surviving daughters remained in Norwich. Elizabeth, the wife of William Freeman who was mayor of Norwich, died in 1850. Ann, lived in Heigham; her second husband, Henry Clifford, died “after a lingering illness” in 1837 aged 68 years “during 37 of which he had filled the office of prompter [at the Theatre Royal, Norwich]”. Anne died in 1869, aged 82 at her home on Earlham Road “much respected by a large circle of friends”; both she and Henry Clifford are buried in All Saint’s graveyard and were commemorated on the same tomb as Elizabeth Barnes.
All Saints Church was redundant from 1973 and became an Ecumenical Multi-Purpose Centre in 1979 and then an antiques centre. Not many original monuments or graves remain; however, it is notable to the prominence of the Barnes and De Carle families that two of the few monuments to have withstood the passage of time are to the memory of Elizabeth, wife of Philip Barnes and two of their daughters. Their daughter Elizabeth was buried in the Rosary cemetery, Norwich.
Philip and Elizabeth’s son, Philip Barnes junior, was active in the Norwich School of Artists, being Secretary, Vice-President, then President. He gave up the bricklaying, lime-burning and building business established by his father, and described himself as an architect – he won the commission to design the new Norwich jail, which was completed in 1827. He was also a superintendent and agent of several East Anglian railway companies, and was appointed High Constable of Norwich and Norfolk in 1833. He appeared to have had financial difficulties throughout his life and had various skirmishes with bankruptcy. Following the death of his wife, Harriet, he moved to London, where he married Mary Stocks, a widow originally from Norwich, in 1835.
He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (FLS); his cousin James De Carle Sowerby was also a Fellow, and together they founded the Royal Botanic Society in Regent’s Park, London.
Philip died in 1874. One of his sons was Robert Barnes, FRCP (1859) Hon FRCS, an obstetric physician at St Thomas’s and then the London Hospital. Another son, Philip Edward Barnes, trained as a barrister and was also a member of the Linnean Society; he worked for a time as assistant secretary to the Royal Botanic Society, and died in 1860 in Chile where he occupied the post of Danish Consul at Coquimbo.
Footnotes
[FN1] There is a brown salt-glazed stoneware jug in the V&A made by Robert Brettingham De Carle for James Sowerby in 1781. Only a small number of his wares are recorded, characterised by high quality modelling in high relief, turning utilitarian brown stoneware into a luxury product. R B De Carle is also thought to have worked for Mrs Coade’s artificial stone factory at Lambeth – shortly after his death “the very elegant coat of arms placed over the [Norwich] shawl manufactory…is a composition of Coade’s artificial stone manufactory, Lambeth, and the modelling exceuted by the deceased Mr Robert De Carle, a native of this city and son of Mr De Carle of this place (Norwich Chronicle 1792).