The fol­low­ing mate­r­ial is from Fran­cis Barnard (ca. 1616–1698) and his Descen­dants, A Genealog­i­cal Study, Part A, by Walther M. Barnard, Ver­sion of 09 August 2009, page 1. Used with permission.

The Early Barnard Settlers

Emi­grat­ing from Eng­land, Barnards were among the ear­li­est set­tlers of New Eng­land. Although none were pas­sen­gers on the Mayflower which arrived in Decem­ber, 1620, bear­ing the Pil­grims which set­tled at Ply­mouth, Mass­a­chu­setts, Barnards were immi­grat­ing within 14 years to New Eng­land. List­ings of Barnard arrivals there in 1620 have been pub­lished, but these appear to be errors; they include arrivals to Con­necti­cut and Cam­bridge, Mass­a­chu­setts, some years before these local­i­ties were settled.

The fol­low­ing are listed as arriv­ing in 1620, as cited in Banks, Charles Edward, Topo­graph­i­cal Dic­tio­nary of 2885 Eng­lish Emi­grants: Bal­ti­more; Genealog­i­cal Pub­lish­ing Co., 1957 (all from Barnard, Roy, The New World Book of Barnards: Halbert’s Fam­ily Her­itage, Ohio, 1997, p. 51–52):

Bartholomew, in Con­necti­cut, p. 44; Bartholomew, in Maine, p. 100; John, in Cam­bridge, p. 42; John, in New Eng­land, p. 48; Methuse­lah, in Mass­a­chu­setts, p. 138; Robert, in New Eng­land, p. 41, 150.

The very ear­li­est arrival in the New World with the Barnard sur­name may have been a William Barnard, who, as a young man of 21 years, arrived in Vir­ginia as early as 1622/23.

Boyer, Carl, 3^rd, ed. Ship Pas­sen­ger Lists: The South (1538–1825), Newhall, Cal­i­for­nia: the edi­tor, 1979—per Barnard, Roy, 1997, op. Cit., p. 52; “Lists of Liv­ing & Dead in VA, Feb, 1623.” Colo­nial Records of Vir­ginia, 1874, Rich­mond, VA: R F Walker, 1874, pp. 37–66 (per Barnard, Roy, 1997, op. Cit., p. 53; “Muster of the Inhab­i­tants in Vir­ginia..” William and Mary Col­lege Quar­terly His­tor­i­cal Mag., vol 7:4 (April 1899), pp. 217–218 (per Barnard, Roy, 1997, op. Cit., p. 55).

A com­mon sur­name is no guar­an­tee of rela­tion­ship. Today geneal­o­gists research­ing Barnard lin­eages rec­og­nize dif­fer­ent fam­i­lies descend­ing from the early set­tlers, and have not fully resolved the rela­tion­ships, if any, among the early Barnard immigrants.