This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the Bar,' i.e. the entrance to the city or town; v. Bargate, usually made of posts and chain.

Maurice de la Barre. Devon, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

John de la Barre, Staffordshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

William atte Barre, Derbyshire, ibid.

Gunilda de la Barre, Hertfordshire. Hundred Rolls.

Philip de le Barre, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Thomas atte Barr, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

1765. Married — Henry Barr and Elis. Richardson: St. George, Hanover Square.

Of local origin from Barr in Ayrshire or Barr in Renfrewshire, or perhaps from both. The surname is most frequently found at the present day in the district around Glasgow, and is a common surname in the Kilbarchan Commissariot Record. Atkyn de Barr was bailie of Ayr c. 1340 (Friars Ayr, p. 15). John Bar or de Barre was burgess of Edinburgh in 1423 (LSC., p. 227; Egidii, p. 45). Patrick Bar was a witness in Glasgow in 1551, and William Barr 'combuigess' of the same town in 1554 (Protocols, I). Robert Barre, barber in Knockdole, was cited before the Privy Council in 1565 (RPC., I, p. 377), and Alexander Bar was retoured heir of James Bar in Kylesmure, his father, in 1600 (Retours, Ayr, 36). Arnchibald Bar was burgess of Glasgow in 1612 (Burgesses), and William Barr took the Test in Paisley in 1686 (RPC., 3. ser. XI. p. 496). As Bar, Barr, and Barre the name occurs in the Edinburgh Marriage Records. Sometimes difficult to separate from Barry which also occurs in records as Barre.

(Scottish) One who came from Barr (height), in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire; dweller at the top of the hill.

From La Barre in the Côtentin. (See also Delabere). Ralph Barre, the son of Godefridus, is mentioned in 1139, and was of Torlaston in Nottinghamshire.

His wife must have been a De Lisle, for his son Richard, in one of his deeds, speaks of Ranulf de Insula, his grandfather, and Matilda Malebisse, his grandmother. Fifth in descent from Richard was Thomas, Dominus de Teversall (or Tearsall), who first called himself Barry, as the family continued to do till it ended with John Barry in the reign of Henry VI. A branch seated at Torlaston lasted about one hundred years longer. These Barres or Barrys were benefactors to the monks of Beauchief, and bore allusive arms. “The seal of Sir Galfrid Barre, with his name circumscribed, in 1244, was Barry of eight or ten, with a File of five Labels.”—Ibid.

In Northamptonshire, William Barre, or Barry, of Great Billing, held one fee of Courcy in 1165 (Liber Niger) and gave Billing Church to Leicester Abbey (Mon. ii. 312). Sir Ralph, presumably his great grandson, held two fees of Ripariis and Mortimer in Billing (Testa de Nevill): and the next heir, Sir Robert, was returned as knight of the shire for Northants 12 Ed. II., and for Bucks 25 Ed. I. and 6 Ed. II. Third in descent from Sir Robert we find another Robert, who, in 1361, again represented Buckinghamshire. Baker, in his History of Northamptonshire, gives a pedigree in which, as he tells us, “the scattered notices of this family are embodied. But the accuracy of the connections may be doubted down to Sir Robert, who first occurs 4 Ed. I., and 25 Ed. I. is on the list of knights possessed of ₤20 per an. in lands and tenements in this county or elsewhere, summoned to meet the King with horse and arms at Portsmouth. Not a single marriage of this family can be retrieved; and it is entirely lost sight of after the reign of Ed. III.”

1. A parish and a hamlet in co. Stafford; also a parish in Ayrshire. 2. The gateway of a fortified town. 3. A preDomesd. name Bar, meaning probably either Anglo-Saxon bar, bear, or bar, boar-a sobriquet. De la Bare. H.R.

Local: from the parish of Barr in Ayrshire.

(Celtic.) Local. The top or summit of any thing; any thing round. Bar, Gaelic, an old word for a bard or learned man. Bar, local, a bank of sand or earth, a shoal; the shore of the sea. It may be derived from Barre, a town in France, or from Barr, a parish and village in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Armorially identified with Barry.

A Norman name: Berry; a local name