The Barber Family: Early American Converts

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Daniel Barber came from good Puritan stock and was a fine upstanding Congregationalist minister. Until some Episcopalians convinced him that Apostolic Succession matters when it comes to ministerial Orders. So he became an Episcopalian priest. He was a fine, upstanding Episcopalian priest for many years. He and his wife, Chloe, raised three children as good Episcopalians. But eventually the question of Apostolic Succession came back to him, and he realized that Episcopalianism didn't satisfy the question of Apostolic Succession — the Catholics actually had it, and the Episcopalians didn't. Meantime, his son Virgil had also become a fine, upstanding Episcopalian priest. He and his wife, Jerusha, were in charge of a good school and had a comfortable life with their children. But a chance encounter with a pamphlet on the life of St. Francis Xavier fired his heart to seek the faith that motivated a man like St. Francis to do what he'd done. Eventually, Virgil and Jerusha became Catholic. Then Chloe converted, along with a number of other members of the family. And finally, Daniel also became Catholic. The entire affair was very upsetting to fine, upstanding New England Protestant sensibilities, and caused a sensation. But the sensations didn't end there. The rest, however, is a tale for another time.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.
0:11.0	If you value this content, please become a supporter at Americancatholichistory.org
0:16.4	slash support.
0:18.0	I'm Noelle Heester Crowe.
0:19.0	And I'm Tom Crow.
0:20.0	Today we're talking about the Barber family,
0:23.2	a prominent family of fine, upstanding Protestants who shocked Revolutionary War era in New England
0:29.4	by becoming Catholic. But first we start with a word of thanks to our supporters. Yes, we want to
0:35.3	highlight some of the people who make this work possible.
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0:56.1	rating and a great review. Those especially help us out by helping others to find us.
1:01.6	Yes, thank you for your support. We hope to keep earning your trust and support. But now, on to our topic.
1:08.5	As we said, the barbers were a family of Protestants in New England,
1:12.6	but they shocked Protestant New England when they converted to Catholicism in 1817 and 1818.
1:19.7	The story of how this came about is pretty remarkable. Yeah, becoming Catholic wasn't the thing
1:25.3	you did out of convenience or for social status back
1:28.2	then.
1:29.2	You only converted if you were convinced that it was true and your conscience forced you
1:33.6	to follow the truth.
1:34.8	Well, that was the case with this family.
	...

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