1784 - 1835.
Born in Lunenburg County, Virginia on the 5th February 1784. William Taylor Barry studied law at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, VA. He was admitted to the bar in 1805, and commenced practice in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1807 he was appointed Commonwealth attorney and in 1810 he was elected as a Republican to the Eleventh Congress.
On the 16th December, 1814 he was elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George M. Bibb. He resigned on the 1st May 1816, having been appointed judge of the circuit court for the eleventh district of Kentucky.
He was member of the State Senate 1817 - 1821. He was also elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky in 1820, and in 1824, the secretary of state for Kentucky.
On March 9th, 1829, President Andrew Jackson appointed him Postmaster General, a position he held until 1835 when he resigned to take up the post of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain.
In August that year he died in Liverpool while en route to Madrid. His grave is in St. James', although it is suggested that his remains were re-interred in Frankfort cemetery, Kentucky in 1854.