John Barnes, an English emigrant to Plymouth colony, was no stranger to controversy. Court records reveal a man prone to conflict, crudeness, and inebriation. On February 2, 1657, tensions flared when Barnes accused Edward Holman of luring his young servant away from work duties to go on leisure boat trips to Duxbury. The court fined Holman and promised to double the fine if it happened again.
The two had a history of conflict. Years earlier both Holman and Barnes were fined for drunkenness on a Sunday, and Barnes, a wealthy businessman, was even sentenced to sit in the stocks. Another time Barnes was ordered to pay Holman compensation for a wrongful land deal.
Mr. Barnes’ drinking problem continued to be an issue, leading to multiple court appearances, warnings, and even threats to punish both the establishments that served him and the people who drank with him. His "frequent and abominable drunkenness" led to a revocation of his Plymouth citizenship.
Plymouth records show that Barnes was later in court for land disputes, trespassing, harassing his neighbor's children, striking both a neighbor's son and his horse, and was yet again fined for drunkenness.
The last mention of John Barnes in the Plymouth court records was in 1672 when a jury was called to determine his cause of death. Apparently, the sixty-year-old man was petting his bull when it turned and gored him in the leg with its horn. The wound was "both broad and deep," and he died thirty-two hours later.
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“As the coal maketh burning coals, and wood a fire, so the contentious man is apt to kindle strife.”
(Proverbs 26:21; 1599 Geneva Bible)
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