Barraclough, John

BARRACLOUGH, John (1833–1896), stone mason, was born at Almondbury, Yorkshire, son of Jacob Barraclough, a woollen weaver and Mary Armitage. By 1851, Jacob was a blacking manufacturer and John had trained as a stone mason. At Rothwell, Yorkshire, he married Mary Elizabeth AskhamiIn 1854 before in December 1856, they migrated to New South Wales. After arriving at Sydney in April 1857, they moved to the Braidwood goldfields where he was on the committee of the Literary Institute and with Samuel Naylor, as Barraclough & Naylor, successfully tendered for excavation and footings for a proposed hospital. Their finished work was described as ”equal if not superior to any in town”. Both were members of the Oddfellows Band, but after two lean years, they moved to Queensland in 1861. He was superintendent for construction by HW DURIETZ of the Bank of New South Wales, in Queen Street. Barraclough was again active in the community, serving from soon after his arrival with the Operative Masons who participated in Eight Hour demonstrations when working conditions deteriorated and unemployment increased after the failure of the Agra & Masterman’s Bank in 1866. For the Star of Queensland Lodge, of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows. Barraclough as stone mason, J Reikes/RIX as bricklayer and E CHAPMAN as carpenter, erected in Brunswick St, as sub-contractors, Queensland’s first Oddfellows Hall, designed by William SIMPSON. Barraclough left Brisbane soon after its completion and returned to New South Wales where he worked as a stonemason. He died in Sydney in 1896. Two of his sons, Harry Askham Barraclough (1863–1909) and Albert Herbert Barraclough (1867–1936) were prominent opticians in Australia.