Robert Barber joined Adventure for Cook’s Second Voyage on 17 December, 1771, at Deptford.
He began as Quartermaster, becoming an able bodied seaman (AB) on 1 January, 1773. Barber was punished on 16 September, 1773, for disobedience.
According to the musters, he was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, about 1749.
Barber rose to become master of Jupiter, a fourth-rate ship, and of Princessa, a third-rate. On 12 October 1780, Sir Thomas Rich captain of Princessa wrote to the Navy Board from Spithead, asking for “the early attendance of Robert Barber, the present Master of the Jupiter, as the Princessa is under sailing orders for foreign parts”.1 She was a Spanish ship captured on 16 January, 1780. She sailed for the West Indies on 29 November.
Barber was still in the Navy when he died in 1783. In his will, proven on 20 July 1783, he left his estate to his sisters, Ann Barber and Mary Barber.2 His will was written on 29 December, 1779, when he was Master of HMS Mercury, a sixth-rate ship.
John Robson
References
- Reference ADM 106/1262/6. Held at The National Archives (TNA), Kew.
- Reference PROB 11/1105. TNA.
Originally published in Cook's Log, page 35, volume 46, number 2 (2023).