The Barclays: A
Barbadian-Liberian Connection
This researched article was first published in Sea Breeze, Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings in 2008. It came about when I was asked, by the then editor of the Journal, Stephanie Horton, to serve as guest editor. I was quite taken aback, of course, however, it did not take me long to make the decision. I realized what a great honor it would be. We settled quickly on a theme. As a Virgin Islander, who lived and taught at the University of Liberia for fourteen years, and a founding member of the Liberian Association of Writers (LAW), I thought about the history that connected the Caribbean to Liberia.
Writers from Liberia and the Caribbean contributed to this edition. Liberian writers who contributed to this special edition included Wilton Sankawulu Sr. Dr. Robert Brown, Stephanie Horton, Robtel Pailey, Deoba Bropleh, Francis Leo Milner Horto, Sr., Yei Gausi Wuor, Cameron Brown, K. Neville Best and Cassandra Mark Thiesen. Caribbean contributors included: Joanne C. Hillhouse, Elaine Warren-Jacobs, Vincent O. Cooper and Althea Romeo Mark. Others included: Duncan McGibbon, Lorraine A. Watson and Tony Martin.
The Barclays: A Barbadian-Liberian Connection
According to Dr. Mary Antoinette Brown Sherman, the father of the family,
Anthony Barclay headed a group of 333 immigrants to Liberia. The Barclay
family, which consisted of thirteen members, increased the group number to 346.
The Barclay family was made up of eight daughters and three sons. They left Barbados in April 1865 and arrived in Liberia in May 1865.[1] The group
of Barbadians was described in The African Repository as the "most intelligent
and best-educated emigrants that ever came to Liberia and equally
industrious.”[2]
Dr. Antoinette Brown Sherman further states that “In the century and a quarter
that followed, they lived up to the reputation, making significant contributions to
the Liberian nation in such fields as the political, social, economic, and
religion. For example from the ranks of the Barclay family have come two
Presidents of Liberia, a Chief Justice, four Secretaries of State, two
Associate Justices, other officials of the Liberian Government, a number of
professionals, and the wives of a number of prominent Liberian men.”[3]
The Early Male Pioneers
Filmmaker Gerald K. Barclay’s copy of an original family document gives us a
little history of the men in the family. We are informed that one of the
brothers, Samuel Gerald, died in Bridgetown, on the 17th of June 1854, at the
age of five. The father of the family died at the age of 56 on January 16,
1866, one year after his arrival in Liberia. The document states that “this
thus left the responsibility of rearing the family, and largely of looking
after the entire immigration, upon his widow, Sarah Ann Barclay.”[4] She became
the role-model for the Barclay women.
The second son, Earnest James Barclay, who was born in Bridgetown, Barbados,
March 30th, 1847 and who was the father of Arthur Barclay, died while Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, on the 8th of April, 1894. He had
served in the position of Secretary of State of Liberia for two years. One week
later, the eldest son, Anthony Barclay, who was born in Bridgetown, Barbados,
on July 10th, 1842, died in Grand Bassa, Liberia. He was serving as the
presiding judge of the Common Pleas Court of Grand Bassa at the time of his
death.[5]
Arthur Barclay
|
(The 15th President of Liberia,
serving 1904 to 1912) |
Arthur Barclay was born on July 31, 1854, in Bridgetown, Barbados, British West Indies. He was the tenth of twelve children of his parents, Anthony and Sarah Ann Bourne Barclay.
Dr. Fred P. M. van der
Kraaij, a Dutch national who taught at the University of Liberia in the 1970s,
describes Arthur Barclay, in his book, The Open Door Policy of Liberia, as
being eleven years old upon the family’s arrival in Liberia. Dr. van der Kraaij
further tells us that the family “settled in Monrovia where Arthur engaged in
petty-trading in the streets of the capital city. Monrovia may have had 5,000
inhabitants at the time.”[6] He goes on to say that Arthur Barclay “was
educated at Liberia College, studied law and became a counselor-at-law. He was
called to the Bar of Montserrado County in 1877.
Three years later he joined the Supreme Court. He also gained reputation as a
scholar.”[7] Arthur Barclay’s climb to success continued. He became interested
in politics and held various positions in government until he reached the
ultimate position – that of President of the Republic of Liberia, in 1903. He
was re-elected twice thereafter, thus serving as President from 1904 to 1912.
18th President of Liberia, December
3, 1930 – January 3, 1944 |
Edwin James Barclay, poet, and composer, the nephew of Arthur Barclay, served as president of Liberia from 1930-1944. He composed Liberia’s national hymn, “The Lone Star Forever”, in 1909 at the age of 19. As president, Edwin Barclay was responsible for the Open Door Policy which helped to transform Liberia for the better economically. Dr. Fred van der Kraaij informs us that the door, which had been closed since 1864 by
Edwin Barclay’s predecessor, Charles King, was reopened to investors. He did this by “repealing the famous port of Entry Law of 1864 that had restricted the economic activities of foreigners in the country.”[8]
His administration was not without problems. Liberian sovereignty was threatened internally and externally during his rule: “In the 1930s a small group of Liberians, mostly retired Government officials petitioned President Barclay to invite the US government to take over the administration of the country, which Barclay refused to do. In the same period, the League of Nations attempted to impose a Plan of Assistance in the aftermath of the Forced Labour scandal. This would have meant the end of Liberia’s sovereignty."[9]
Role of the Barclay
Women
As mentioned earlier, the family matriarch, Sarah Ann Barclay, took on the
responsibility of raising her large family and guiding the Barbadian emigrants
upon the death of her husband. Gerald K. Barclay states in his document
(expanding on a copy of an earlier document published by Louis Arthur Grimes,
nephew of Malvina Barclay, in 1933 at the time of her death), that Sarah Ann
Barclay “began the line of the Barclay women in Liberia . . . She died at the
age of 79 on the 3rd of July, 1895.”[10]
The original document features Malvina Barclay. Like her other siblings, she
was born in Bridgetown, Barbados on the 31st of August, 1840. On the death of
her mother, “she became the “de facto head of the family, as her two eldest
sisters, Antoinette Hope and Mary Augusta, widow of the late Judge Herring, had
somewhat [been] enfeebled from age, then later following her deceased mother
into the great beyond at Grand Bassa..”[11] She died at the age of 95 in
Liberia.
Dr. Mary Antoinette Brown Sherman expands on the original document in her
publication, “Barclay Women in Liberia-Two Generations”. This publication draws
on other sources including Herbert Brewer’s, “Back to Africa: The Bajan
Connection” (February 1992), among others. It is a “biographical dictionary
[that] brings to the forefront the second and third generation of women born
into the Barclay family and women who became part of the family by marriage to
Barclay men of these generations.”[12]
Some Barclay family members married into other families of Caribbean descent.
This includes the John Francis Marshall family and the Grimes family. John Francis
Marshall was one of the 346 persons who emigrated from Barbados. His daughter,
Mary Louise Marshall became the first wife of Arthur Barclay. She bore him two
boys and two girls.
Photo-Sarah Ann Bourne Barclay(Left): Liberia Positive
The conclusion of this document pays homage to
Sarah Ann Barclay. “Her children achieved remarkable success in their adopted
home and the emigrants, as a whole, made outstanding contributions to the Liberian
nation.”[13]
The Barclays are just one of many families who emigrated from the Caribbean to
Liberia. Some families made larger contributions than others. But the
contributions, large or small, helped to build a nation that is still evolving
today.
Footnotes
[1] Dr. Mary Antoinette Sherman Brown, “Barclay Women in Liberia – Two
Generations”, Liberian Studies Journal: Special Issue in Memory of Mary
Antoinette Brown Sherman, Department of History, West Michigan University,
Volume XXX, Number 1, 2005.
[2] Dr. Mary Antoinette Sherman Brown, ”Barclay Women in Liberia-Two
Generations.”
[3] Ibid.
[4]Gerald K. Barclay, “Brief Life Sketch Of the Late Malvina Barclay”, based on
original papers in L.A. Grimes, University of Liberia Library, August 10th,
1973.
[5]Gerald K. Barclay, “Brief Life Sketch Of the Late Malvina Barclay”.
[6]Dr. Fred van der Kraaij, The Open Door Policy of Liberia – An Economic
History of Modern Liberia, Übersee Museum, Bremen, Germany, 1983.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid. Colonial Spain in Equatorial Guinea needed laborers for their cocoa
plantations. In 1905, Liberia agreed to supply the workers on contract. Village
chiefs rounded up young men and supplied them with contractors; the
laborers received no salary until they returned to Liberia. The League of
Nations published a scathing report equating the system to slavery (Dr. Fred
van der Kraaij).
[10] Gerald K. Barclay, “Brief Life Sketch Of the Late Malvina Barclay”.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Dr. Mary Antoinette Sherman Brown, “Barclay Women in Liberia – Two
Generations”.
[13] Ibid
Bibliography
Gerald K. Barclay,
“Brief Life Sketch Of the Late Malvina Barclay”, based on original papers in
L.A. Grimes, University of Liberia Library, August 10th, 1973.
Dr. Mary Antoinette
Sherman Brown, “Barclay Women in Liberia – Two Generations”,
Liberian Studies Journal: Special Issue in Memory of Mary Antoinette Brown
Sherman, Department of History, West Michigan University, Volume XXX, Number 1,
2005.
Dr. Fred van der Kraaij, The Open Door Policy of Liberia – An
Economic History of Modern Liberia, Übersee Museum, Bremen, Germany, 1983.
© Althea Romeo-Mark
http://archives-two.liberiaseabreeze.com/althea_romeo_mark.html
Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2008
Born in Antigua, West Indies, Althea Romeo Mark is an educator and writer who grew up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. She has lived and taught in the Virgin Islands, USA, Liberia, England, and Switzerland since 1991. She writes poetry and short stories and has been published. in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, USA, England, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Colombia, India, U.K., Kenya, Liberia, Romania and Switzerland. Her last poetry collection, The Nakedness of New, was published in 2018. She has participated in International Poetry Festivals in Romania, Kenya and in Colombia.
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