Francis Barber’s is a name that, until recently, was not well known in the place where he made his home after the death of his friend and benefactor, Dr. Johnson, in 1784. Johnson is ubiquitous in Lichfield, commemorated in words and images throughout the city. Barber goes largely unremarked, despite Michael Bundock’s 2015 biography and a small display at the Birthplace Museum.
Francis Barber’s story is an extraordinary journey from enslaved childhood on a Jamaican sugar plantation to life as a free man of some means in an English cathedral city and one of Britain’s first Black school teachers.
In December 2021, members of Lichfield District City of Sanctuary began to research Barber’s life, to usher him out of obscurity and to propose tangible recognition of his presence in Lichfield and Burntwood.
Pamela Tomlinson and Professor Ann Hughes, LDCoS’ very own History Girls, completed their research and proposed that a plaque, commemorating Barber’s life, be installed near the site in Stowe Street where he had lived with his family.
Their detailed proposal was shared with the Johnson Society, One Lichfield and Joanne Wilson, the Lichfield City Council officer responsible for the Birthplace Museum, and forwarded to the Council. With the support of City Councillors Colin Ball and Hugh Ashton, agreement was reached and on 29th March 2023, a plaque commemorating Francis Barber and his remarkable life was unveiled by his four times great-grandchildren, Cedric and Sandra Barber. The ceremony took place at the Cruck House in Stowe Street, Lichfield where the plaque will be mounted on a wall which Barber and his family would have seen as they passed by every day.
“ FRANCIS BARBER
c 1742 – 1801
One of Britain’s first Black schoolmasters,
for many years the friend and servant of
Samuel Johnson, who made him his heir.
Lived on Stowe Street 1786 – 93
and was an elected
local official.”