The name Barrett is of French origin and means "the bright or illustrious one".  It is said that the family first came to England in the army of William the  Conqueror. They seem to have first resided in County Cambridge, for they are found  there in the Domesday Book (1085 A.D.) and later in Ragman's Roll and the Roll of the  Hundreds. Subsequently, they spread into Lincolnshire and Essez, and still later to  Ireland.

Upon the Recovation of the Edict of Nantes, others of the name fled to  England and Huguenots. Many of the name came to the American Colonies at an early  date, and the name is found in every one of the thirteen colonies prior to the year  1700. There were over 370 Barretts who served in the Colonial Army in the Revolution.

Arthur Barrett, my ninth great grandfather was the progenitor of the Barrett  family in America. He was born in England unto Thomas Cook and Sara Jenkins-Barrett  in 1680. There were, to be sure, Barretts' in England of noble birth, and a Barrett  coat-of-arms is in existence. The Barrett motto is "Honor, Virtue, Probity".

Arthur Barrett was a member of the Society of Friends, and the first record of  him in America appears in the Quaker records in 1705 when he was married at Concord  Monrthly Meetings in Pennsylvania. The Society of Friends has its origin in England  in the middle of the seventeenth century, so it is conceivable that Arthur's parents  were likewise of this faith. The Quakers in England were severly persecuted until the  Toleration Act of 1689.

Much of the information in the account which follows has been obtaind from  research in Quaker church records, from wills and deeds, census records, and from  Family Bible records. Data obtained from living descendants and from family written  records comprise the other sources.