When John Walker Barr was born in 1787, in Salisbury, Rowan, North Carolina, United States, his father, Isaac Barr, was 16 and his mother, Margaret Walker, was 16. He married Agnes McCord on 22 May 1811, in Maury, Tennessee, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 2 daughters. He lived in Maury, Tennessee, United States in 1820. He died in October 1849, in Marion, Illinois, United States, at the age of 62.