By DIANA T. EARTH

Galon L. Barlow Jr. regaled a packed house at the Briarwood Conference Center Tuesday with "Tales of the Good and Not So Good Cape Cod Folks."

The author of several books dealing with New England history, the educator, storyteller, and former selectman, who currently serves on the Bourne Board of Health, spoke at the behest of the Bourne Historical Society about five of his more colorful ancestors.

Mr. Barlow, known as Skip, began by joking that his research did not find a lot of good Barlows and that those good Barlows he did find were women, although he made an exception for some recent relatives, some of them known to the assembled crowd.

He started his tales in the late 1500s, telling the story of Sir Water Raleigh sending Arthur Barlow and another man to the New World with the hope of investing there, in competition with France and Spain.

His ancestor landed in what is now North Carolina and returned to England with two Indian chiefs. Arthur Barlow then wrote a narrative that made the New World sound so good that within three years, 40 ships were sent and Williamsburg, Virginia, was founded.

Mr. Barlow then fastforwarded about 200 years, focusing on George Barlow, referred to by some as the "Beast of Sandwich."

A preacher for the Church of England, George Barlow was also a lawyer, proving, his descendant said, that they "weren't any better then than they are now." He came to the Sandwich area and continued preaching, ending up in Saco, Maine, then a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

He lived there until he was threatened with jail if he did not stop preaching about the edicts of the established church. He then decided to return to Sandwich.

The 17th-century George Barlow loved to drink, Skip Barlow told the crowd, and he married a widow who knew how to brew liquor.

He petitioned the General Court and was made -one of the first marshals in Sandwich. In his new capacity as marshal, he took it upon himself to rid the town of Quakers, described by Skip Barlow as good, calm, peaceful people.

His methods to get rid of the Quakers included the use of his sword to remove the ears from some of them.

A story of cursed kettles involving George Barlow, however, is a lighter one.

In order to ingratiate himself with his new wife and stepdaughter, George Barlow confiscated the largest kettles he could find from the Quakers, bringing them to his wife's family residence for use in making liquor.

According to Skip Barlow, historical accounts say that the kettles were cursed by the Quakers, such that nothing good could be prepared in them.

Whiskey, however, was not ' something they would have deemed "good," and so the liquor made in the cursed kettles was excellent.

George Barlow died, Skip Barlow said, in a snowstorm, a half-filled cask of liquor in his arms, frozen to death in Sandwich's Christopher's Hollow, not far from the doorsteps of homes owned by Quakers.

Barlows were privateers in the mid 1700s, the time of the Revolutionary War, having received permission to confiscate British goods. Before that, Skip Barlow commented, they were just "robbers."

Five Barlow brothers, including Levi and Nathan, plied the seas, in particular the waters between New York and Boston.

When they began going ashore to plunder British shopkeepers living on Nantucket, they had gone too far. A British frigate kept them out to sea.

However, Skip Barlow said, the Barlows exacted their revenge. They returned to Pocasset and took a flotilla of small boats back to Nantucket, captured the British ship and brought it back to the mainland.

Shortly after the end of the war, the Barlow boys went their separate ways.

Some of Skip Barlow's ancestors ended up in New York state; an enclave of Barlows who loved women as much as liquor joined the Mormon religion, which allowed multiple wives, and settled in Utah and Arizona.

Barlows have not lived in Barlows Landing in any numbers since more than 100 years ago.

As to Barlow relatives in the area, however, that is a different question. Besides his brother Thomas, second cousins with the last name Wright, Phinney, Perry or Wing abound, Skip Barlow said, among others.

Mr. Barlow told his audience that he, himself, has 22 grandchildren.

At the conclusion of Mr. Barlow's presentation, he signed copies of the books he has written, which include The Adventures of Levi and Nathan, The Kettles, and The Battle of Nantucket.

The history found in American history books changes when seen through the eyes of the Barlows, who were not always, Skip Barlow said, "good" citizens.

Skip Barlow's presentation is one of a series being presented by the historical society.