When Woodruff Lyttleton Barnes was born on 16 October 1816, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States, his father, Enos Barnes III, was 30 and his mother, Rebecca Wickes, was 23. He married Emma Eliza Whitmore on 30 May 1850, in Middle Haddam, Chatham, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 5 daughters. He lived in Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States in 1850. He died on 3 December 1881, in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States, at the age of 65, and was buried in Wyoming, Middlebury, Wyoming, New York, United States.