Born in Paisley, Scotland in 1809, Barr moved to Otago in 1852, and farmed a property at Halfway Bush. In 1857 he moved with his wife Mary and their four children to Balclutha, and established a farm which he called Craigilee. He was the founder of the New Zealand Robert Burns Society.In his time, he was considered the Laureate of Otago province, of which he wrote, in Lowland Scots:

There's nae place like Otago yet,

There's nae wee beggar weans,

Or auld men shivering at our doors

To beg for scraps or banez

Allen Curnow described his writing as "this Scots-colonial parritch... watery gruel at the best."