Ebenezer Barnard was born in 1696, six months after his father, Joseph Barnard, died of gunshot wounds from an attack by an Indigenous raiding party in 1695. Ebenezer moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1717, where he went into business as a clothier. He returned to Deerfield, Massachusetts around 1732 with his wife Elizabeth and their children, including Joseph (1717-1785), who would inherit the bulk of his childless uncle Samuel Barnard's substantial fortune. Widowed in 1753, Ebenezer remarried Mary Arms, the widow of Daniel Arms of Deerfield, in 1754.
Ebenezer actively participated in renting and sharing labor of people enslaved by other family members. Appearing as "Father" in his son Joseph's accounts, Ebenezer rented from him the labor of an enslaved man called Prince. He also rented the labor of Titus and Matthew, enslaved in the household of his second wife's stepson, Daniel Arms, Jr.
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