Eliza Starbuck Barney (April 9, 1802 – March 18, 1889) was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

, responsible for handwritten

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

records that traced the history of more than 40,000 residents of Nantucket, Massachusetts, from the 17th to 19th century. The Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record, now maintained by the

Nantucket Historical Association Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined cou ...

, has been digitized and is now available online.

Biography

Eliza Starbuck was the third child of Joseph Starbuck and Sally Gardner, a

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

family that had become wealthy in the whale oil industry. At 18, Eliza married Nathaniel Barney. Despite their wealth, the couple shared a home with Eliza's sister, Eunice, and her husband William Hadwen. The husbands became business partners, opening a whale oil refinery on the site of the current

Nantucket Whaling Museum The Nantucket Whaling Museum is a museum located in Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. It is run by the Nantucket Historical Association. The Whaling Museum is the flagship site of the Nantucket Historical Association’s fleet of propert ...

. Eliza Starbuck Barney was secretary to Nantucket's Anti-Slavery Society from 1839 to 1840. The families welcomed

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was an Abolitionism in the United States, American abolitionist, journalist, and reformism (historical), social reformer. He is best known for his widely read anti-slavery newspaper ''The ...

and

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

to their home at 100 Main Street in 1841 and hosted an anti-slavery meeting; Nathaniel Barney refused his dividends from the

New Bedford Railroad The New Bedford Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was incorporated on July 1, 1873, as a merger between the New Bedford and Taunton Railroad, the Taunton Branch Railroad, and the Middleborough and Taunton Railroad. The main line ran ...

to protest its refusal to carry black passengers. In 1851, Eliza attended the first women's suffrage convention in Massachusetts. Nathaniel and Eliza left Nantucket for

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

sometime after 1857, and Eliza returned after her husband's death in 1869. Her son, Joseph, built a home for her at 73 Main Street in 1871. It is now known as the Eliza Barney house.

Genealogy records

Barney's collection of genealogical data for residents of Nantucket spanned 1,702 handwritten pages in six 275-page books. The information includes family lineage, births, marriages, deaths, relocations, and deaths at sea. The record begins with the first European settlers in Nantucket, and extended beyond her death into 1912 through the work of her granddaughter. Genealogical information from the books was extracted by Nantucket Historical Association staff and volunteers and is now searchable via an online database. Barney's genealogical record contains some idiosyncratic flourishes, such as appending "Jr." to the names of women with the same names as their mother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barney, Eliza Starbuck People from Nantucket, Massachusetts 1802 births 1889 deaths 19th-century Quakers American genealogists Suffragists from Massachusetts Historians from Massachusetts American women historians Quaker abolitionists American women civil rights activists Abolitionists from Massachusetts