The Barclays: A Barbadian-Liberian Connection

By: aromaproductions on 11:39 AM

Share it Please

Tweet

The Barclays: A Barbadian-Liberian Connection

Many Barbadians are unaware of the role their middle-sized island in the Caribbean played in building the West African nation of Liberia. They would be surprised to find out that two of Liberia’s presidents were of Barbadian ancestry. And not only that, both presidents came from the same family, the Barclays. In addition, the Barclay family consisted of very strong women who were the backbone to the success of their men.

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. The group 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 reputation, making significant contributions to the Liberian nation in such fields as the political, social, economic, and religious. 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’s 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 counsellor-at-law. He was called to the Bar of Montserrado County in 1977.




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.

Edwin Barclay

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.

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 contribution 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 labourers for their cocoa plantations. In 1905, Liberia agreed to supply the workers on contract. Village chiefs rounded up young men and supplied them with to contractors; the labourers 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.

Nathaniel R. Richardson, Liberia's Past and Present. London: The Diplomatic Press and Publishing Company, 1959.

Copyright © Althea Romeo-Mark

http://archives-two.liberiaseabreeze.com/althea_romeo_mark.html
Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2008