Margaret Walter Barker

Biography

Margaret Walter married John Barker, a clothier from Suffolk in eastern England, in June 1585. Their children included Mary Barker, later the wife of Isaac Stearns. After John's death, Margaret married a man named Munnings, a yeoman associated with Colne Engaine in the neighboring English county of Essex.

That second marriage included an agreement affecting Mary's property. By 1640 Mary was living in Watertown, Massachusetts, and £5 was still due to her under a bond or covenant made before or at Margaret's marriage. Mary and Isaac authorized a baker in Sudbury, Thomas Gilson, to pursue the claim in England.

The surviving instrument places Margaret within a family whose members now lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Her remarriage and the associated settlement remained important enough for her daughter to arrange legal representation from New England.

The maiden surname Walter comes from later compiled genealogies.