Frederick George Barton was born in Tunbridge Wells England in 1858, the son of John Barton (1830-1900) a cab driver. The family were poor and lived in poor housing.As a boy of age 8 Frederick began a life of crime and over a period of 45 years of life he spent about 35 of them in prison and later in American , a country he fled to in 1888. He is known to have at least 5 wives which he swindled and left them destitute. In St Louis he was found guilty of murdering James P McCann and sentenced to hang but was commuted to life imprisonmant. However he was pardoned in 1903. Although he was let out on the condition that he leave the USA he remained in the country. What he got up to in the years from his release in 1903 until his reappearance in Brooklyn New York in 1920 is something I would be interested in learning about. The last report I have for him is from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of September 19,1920 when he appears at the office of the newspaper under the false name of Major J.K. Hastings-Seymour, making inquiries about his daughter Elaine who was born to him and his wife Celestina Elizabeth Barton, nee Miller who Barton had married in Brooklyn NY in 1891 and took to England under false pretenses, one his wives he took money from and left pennyless. Celestina in 1893 returned to Brookly with her daughter Elaine but by the time "Major J.K. Hastings-Seymour" arrived at The Eagle newspaper office his daughter Elaine had been married and drowned in Virginia in a canoeing accident in 1915. I would like to find out what happened to "Major J.K. H. Seymour after 1920-presumably he remained in the USA for there was nothing for him back in England.
He was born according to birth records as Frederick Barton. Other names he went by were Frederick George Barton, Lord Barrington, Lord Frederick Seymour Barrington, Sir Frederick Sydenham Burgoyney, Victor Vernon Sydenham and others but in 1920, the last record I have he was operating under the false name of Major J. K. Hastings-Seymour. I would be most interested in any information about him and his life and death for the period from 1903 onwards. If I read the Washington Post article correctly of August 14,1907 about Barton it appears he was let out of prison although another article reported that prison officials in St Louis stated to The Eagle that Barton was parolled December 24,1918.