Henry Charles

Henry Charles Barkley (1837-1903) married Sara Jane Palgrave Spurgeon (1841-1924)

Henry Charles and Sara Jane married at Twyford, Norfolk in 1866.

Sarah Jane Palgrave Spurgeon was the daughter of John Spurgeon (1801-1860) and Frances Norris (1811-1868). Rev John Spurgeon was Rector of Twyford. The name Palgrave is a reference to her paternal grandmother, Eleanor Palgrave. Palgraves are a Norfolk family with a rich history.

Henry Charles Barkley was another civil engineer and railway builder, working with John Trevor Barkley and George Andrew Barkley, specifically responsible for the construction of the line between Varma (a Black Sea port) and the Danube River port of Ruse or Rousse.

He was quite a prolific author:

Between the Danube and the Black Sea or Five Years in Bulgaria John Murray 1876

Bulgaria before the War – During Seven Years’ Experience of European Turkey and its Inhabitants John Murray 1877

My Boyhood John Murray 1877

A Ride through Asia Minor and Armenia – Giving a Sketch of the Characters, Manners and Customs of both the Mussulman and Christian Inhabitants John Murray 1891

Studies in the Art of Rat Catching John Murray 1896

Henry Barkley was employed building railways in the Ottoman Empire from 1857 to 1870. In 1878 he returned to Turkey to join his brother, George, on a 96 day horseback journey from Constantinople (Istanbul) to Trebizond (Trabzon). He estimates that they rode for 1400 miles and spent 53 days in the saddle. This journey is described in A Ride through Asia Minor and Armenia. In later life he lived in Gloucestershire, though he undertook another railway building project in Venezuela in 1888-89.

Henry and Sara had two children.

1. Clara Barkley (1867-1946) married John Goodhind Deane Willis (1861-1956) in Bibury in 1889.

Clara Barkley was born in Varna. Her father describes her traumatic arrival in the world in Bulgaria before the War:

Even in England a birth in a house is far from a pleasant event, at any rate to the male portion of the household, but it is a mere joke to one in Turkey with the thermometer at about 95 degrees in the shade, the doctor 140 miles away, and the only Mrs Gamp to be had a drunken old Irish woman.

Rev John Goodhind Deane Willis was the son of Joseph Deane Willis (1822-1895) and Sarah Griffith (1818-1891). Joseph Deane Willis was a highly successful breeder of shorthorn cattle at Bapton Manor, Wiltshire

Rev John Goodhind Deane Willis was at Merton College Oxford, which he represented in the eights and torpids rowing teams. He went on to become ordained. He was curate at St. Mary's, Bibury for seven years before obtaining a living at St. Nicholas Church, Britwell Salome (1892-1897). He was then vicar at St Peter's Church in the Cotswold village of Windrush for many years until failing eyesight led to his retirement and he and Clara went to live in Milton-under-Wychwood. Clara was a librarian at Milton-under-Wychwood County Library for over thirteen years.

A letter written by Henry Barkley suggests he was fond of his son-in-law:

'I believe he is a real good fellow and anyway he is a perfect gentleman, and I fancy it must be nicer for a woman to be subject to the usual selfishness of a man who is a gentleman that a cad. He dresses nicely, no tucks, has clean hands, has no church fads, likes an improper story, listens when I talk, and in fact is most satisfactory.'

Clara and John Goodhind Dean Willis had one daughter.

1.1 Dorothy Deane Willis (1890-1983) married Ernest John Houlton (1876-1950) in Headington, Oxfordshire in 1918.

Ernest John Houlton was the son of Henry Thomas Houlton (1845-1915) and Elizabeth Craddock (1849-1946). He came from a well-established family of Cotswold tenant farmers and farmed at Pinchpool Farm in the village of Windrush, where Dorothy Dean's father was the vicar. A few years after the death of her husband Dorothy Dean moved to join her father at Milton-under-Wychwood; her final years were spent living in Burford.

Photos: Dorothy Deane and Ernest with their young son.

2. Macdonald Barkley (1871-1956) married Hilda Wulsten Coote (1882-1974) in Huntingdon in 1907.

Hilda Wulsten Coote was the daughter of Walter Coote (1855-1890) and Annette Laura Bunny (1862-1949). Her parents were married in Australia. Walter Coote was a traveller, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of two books, Wanderings, South and East and The Western Pacific.

Macdonald Barkley was named after Iain Macdonald, Henry Barkley's much-loved assistant in Turkey who became sick and died. In Bulgaria before the War Henry Barkley wrote:

'Another Mac now calls my house his home, and my sincere wish is he may grow up such another man as after whom he was named'.

Macdonald Barkley managed the estate of the Earl of Sandwich in Huntingdon. He was a Territorial Army officer and in 1923 he was Mayor of Huntingdon. In later life he lived in Whelford, Gloucestershire.

Macdonald and Hilda had one daughter.

2.1 Hazel Barkley (1909-1993)

Hazel was a civil servant, Assistant Secretary, Board of Trade, and awarded an CBE in 1966. According to a member of the family who was perhaps not being very kind:

She was at Oxford, very clever, was History lecturer in America and doing well but chucked it and came home. Now has a government job in the Board of Trade. Now 61 and not married and I hear is very hysterical.

At the time of her death Hazel was living in the village of Ramsbury, Wiltshire.

Photos: Hazel Barkley with her parents, Macdonald and Hilda.