Probably Joseph Barber

The parents of Margaret and Ann Barber are unknown despite what you may see on the web. The question of parentage has been asked for more than 100 years and no primary sources have turned up. Attached to "Documents" is a query in the Genealogical Section of The Boston Transcript. In it the reader posits that the parents must be named Joseph and Elizabeth because Remembrance and Margaret named their two firstborn (twins) by those names. Their next boy and girl are named after their paternal grandparents. Because the first two children die in infancy, the names John and Elizabeth are given again in the family.

The Lippincott/Barber marriages could have taken place in 1665 in Rhode Island where the Lippincotts were living, or later in New Jersey {Note: Most likely closer to 1671 in New Jersey, as Margaret would have be 10 in 1665}. The families were living in Monmouth, New Jersey in 1666. Quaker meetings were held in the home of Richard and Abigail Lippincott in the early years before a meeting house was built. Quaker and New Jersey records for this period are scanty.

Although there are church records for the Lippincott family in Boston and Dorchester when they were officially Puritans, there are no records for Barbers in these towns during the period in question. George Barbour of Dedham could not be their father as he was not a Quaker, and the births of his children are all recorded and he did not have children by these names. In the 1660's Quakers were being hung in Boston. Torrey's New England Marriages Prior to 1700 does not list a John and Elizabeth Barber. However, during this time period couples were not required to register their marriages with a government entity and few Quaker records exist for this period. They also could have been married in England. Therefore, where Margaret and Ann Barber were born, and who their parents were and where they were married, may never be learned. rj

Sources checked:

New Jersey Marriage Records 1665 - 1800 by William Nelson, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1973

Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, Volume XXI, Edited by William Nelson, Paterson, N.J.: The Press Printing and Publishing Co., 1899

New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Clarence Almon Torrey, NEHGS, Boston 2011

A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, And Deaths, 1630 - 1699, Boston, Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1883

Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths, 1630 - 1699, Edited by William S. Appleton, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1978

A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Dorchester Births, Marriages, And Deaths To The End Of 1825, Boston, Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1890

Vital Records of Charlestown, Massachusetts To The Year 1850, Volume 1, Compiled and Edited by Roger D. Joslyn, NEHGS, Boston 1984

Vital Records of Dedham, Massachusetts 1635 - 1845, Revised and Expanded Edition, Robert Brand Hanson, Editor, Picton Press, Camden, Maine

Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Volume II (NJ & PA), William Wade Hinshaw, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.

England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8) through Family Search