John was christened in 1692 at St Dunstan in the West, the son of Thomas and Mary Barugh. His father was a cutler.
He signed indentures in 1709 to be the apprentice of William Bowsell of the Clockmakers Company and was made free in 1716, the year he married Ann Watts at St Dunstan. She was christened at that church in 1696, the daughter of Josiah and Jane Watts.
John entered his first mark at Goldsmiths Hall in 1716 from White Fryars, Fleet Street and another in 1718 from Hind Court, Fleet Street both as a case worker.
The christening of their son Thomas at St Dunstan in 1718 shows their address as Hind Court.
The burial in 1719 of Ann Barugh, a child from Hind Court, was recorded at the same church.
Surprisingly no record of John’s burial has been found and particularly no record at St Dunstan from 1719-22 to explain the need for Ann to enter her first maker’s mark in August 1721 as a case maker. She was however assessed to Land Tax on property in Hind Court as Widow Barugh from 1722-3.
The christening of another daughter Ann at the same church in March 1722 names both John and Ann as her parents at an address in Boult Court. This is the address Ann gave to Goldsmiths Hall when registering her second mark as a smallworker in 1731.
Ann also seems to have gained her freedom in the Clockmakers Company as she took on the apprentices Gilbert Caton of Southwark in 1737 and Thomas Hounsom of Woolwich in 1738.