Jacob Barker

Jacob Barker
Born	Template:Birth date Swan's Island, Maine, U.S.
Died	December 26, 1871(1871-12-26) (aged 92)
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, financier, politician
Known for	Preservation of Lansdowne Portrait; New York State Senator; financier in New Orleans

Jacob Barker (December 17, 1779 – December 26, 1871) was a distinguished American lawyer and financier.

Early life

Born on December 17, 1779, in Swan's Island, Maine, Barker descended from a Quaker lineage. His parents were Robert Barker and Sarah (née Folger) Gardner of Nantucket. His half-brother, Gideon Gardner, held office as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Through his maternal ancestry, Barker was connected to Benjamin Franklin.

Career

At the age of 16, Barker relocated to New York City, where he amassed considerable wealth through commerce. Beginning in May 1811, he employed Fitz-Greene Halleck, a native of Connecticut, for approximately twenty years. Early during the War of 1812, Barker played a crucial role in arranging a $5 million loan for the United States government.

In 1815, he established the Exchange Bank of New York. The following year, he represented the Southern District—which encompassed counties such as Dutchess, Kings, Manhattan, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester—in the New York State Senate.

Barker also invested in significant financial enterprises like the New York Life and Fire Insurance Company. After the company's collapse in 1826, he and others faced arrest on charges of conspiracy to defraud. Initially acting as his own counsel, Barker later secured defense from prominent attorneys Benjamin F. Butler and Thomas Addis Emmet. The first trial ended with a deadlocked jury; although convicted in the second trial, an appeal eventually led to dismissal of the indictment.

Preservation of Lansdowne Portrait

On August 23, 1814, as British troops advanced on the White House, First Lady Dolley Madison followed President James Madison's directive to evacuate. She instructed Paul Jennings, gardener John McGraw, and John Sioussat to remove Gilbert Stuart’s famous oil portrait of George Washington from the East Room.

Once taken down and unframed, the life-sized painting was entrusted to Jacob Barker and Robert Gilbert Livingston De Peyster for secure transport during the War of 1812. They carried it through Montgomery County, Maryland, carefully steering clear of the District of Columbia boundary lines. As evening approached amid an impending storm near Washington, they sheltered at a farmhouse close to Tiber Creek—a tributary of the Potomac River. The painting stayed there while Barker and De Peyster continued northward toward New York City, eluding British forces controlling the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.

On the night before Washington was set ablaze, Charles Carroll of Bellevue aided Dolley Madison’s rapid exit from the White House to Dumbarton House on August 23, 1814. Years later in 1843, Daniel Carroll disputed New York newspaper accounts regarding his father’s involvement in removing the Lansdowne portrait from the East Room.

New Orleans

In 1834, Barker moved to New Orleans where he became influential within financial sectors. He gained admission to the local bar and practiced successfully in insurance litigation.

During the 1840s, Barker collaborated with Rowland G. Hazard, his wife’s cousin, to liberate free African Americans who had been unlawfully detained in Louisiana under false accusations of being runaway slaves. Despite initial resistance from authorities, they secured court orders that freed several individuals. This effort prompted a grand jury investigation in New Orleans; however, broader systemic reform was not realized.

He held majority ownership in the original St. Charles Hotel. After the American Civil War, Barker was elected as a U.S. Senator from Louisiana but was unable to assume his seat due to delays in Louisiana’s readmission to Congress. In 1867 he declared bankruptcy; a year later in 1868 he was attacked at his residence in New Orleans.

Barker authored The Rebellion: Its Consequences and the Congressional Committee, Denominated the Reconstruction Committee, with their Action (1866).

Personal life

On August 27, 1801, Barker wed Elizabeth Hazard, the daughter of Thomas Hazard Jr., who traced his lineage to one of Newport's original settlers. Together, they had twelve children, among them:

• Robert Barker (1802–1803), who passed away in infancy.
• Robert Barker (1804–1830), lost at sea.
• Thomas Barker (1807–1876), remained single.
• William Hazard Barker (1809–1879), who married Jeanette B. James.
• Andrew Sigourney Barker (1811–1846), never married.
• Anna Hazard Barker (1813–1900), spouse of Samuel Gray Ward.
• Jacob Barker (1816–1842), unmarried.
• Elizabeth Hazard Barker (1817–1878), married successively to Baldwin Brower, William T. Van Zandt, and John McCaulis.
• Sarah Barker (1819–1908), who married John Caile Harrison and later William Henry Hunt, former U.S. Secretary of the Navy.
• Abraham Barker (1821–1906), married first Sarah Wharton, then Katharine Crane.
• Mary Barker (1823–1826), died in childhood.
• John Wells Baker (1825–1825), died as an infant.

Barker passed away on December 26, 1871, having spent his later years residing with his son in Philadelphia. The New York Times commemorated him as a man of integrity and unwavering ethical conduct throughout a career marked by significant challenges.

Descendants

Jacob Barker was the grandfather of Wharton Barker (1846–1921) through his son Abraham. Wharton Barker was notably the Populist Party nominee for President in the 1900 election.

External links

• Portrait of Barker at the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection