John Barwick (1612–1664) was an early English royalist churchman and Dean of
St. Paul's Cathedral
.
Early life
He was born at
St. John's College, Cambridge, where Thomas Fothergill was his tutor, and graduated B.A. in 1635.[1] The Master Owen Gwyn
had died in 1634, and the subsequent election was disputed and attracted the attention of the king; Barwick became involved as the college's representative. He was then elected to a fellowship. He took holy orders, and in 1638 his M.A. degree.
Civil War period
In 1642 royalists at Cambridge raised a sum of money for the king, and gathered together some
Clare College, of which Barwick was one, who conveyed the treasure along back roads to Nottingham.[2] Subsequently, Cromwell moved on Cambridge, taking over the castle. Two pamphlets were put together by Cambridge academics against Cromwell: the first[3] was by Barwick with Isaac Barrow, Peter Gunning, and Samuel Ward;[4] the second[5]
is attributed to Barwick alone.
Barwick left Cambridge, and became chaplain to Bishop
Gatehouse prison at Westminster, and then to the Tower of London
. He was released, without any trial but in much better health, in August 1652.
He then spent a period moving in royalist circles, first with Bishop Morton, and residing for some months in the house of
episcopal succession of the Church of England, and in 1659 Barwick was riding about between the surviving bishops, gathering their opinions. He was then sent over by the bishops to report the state of church affairs to Charles II at Breda
. There he preached before the king, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains.
After the Restoration
After 1660 he did not return to his fellowship at St. John's, where he approved of his successor. He accepted the bishopric of Sodor and Man, only to step aside for a candidate sponsored by the Countess of Derby,
Savoy conference, and he was unanimously elected prolocutor of the lower house of convocation of the province of Canterbury. In 1662 his health began to fail, and he died in London from an attack of pleurisy, which carried him off in three days. He was attended by his old friend, Peter Gunning, who preached his funeral sermon, and Humphrey Henchman
, Bishop of London, performed the obsequies. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
^Certain Disquisitions representing to the Conscience the Unlawfulness of the Solemn League and Covenant; the first edition was immediately seized and burned, so that the earliest edition extant is the second, published in 1644.
^1671-1971 Three Essays written for the Tercentenary of Witherslack Parish Church of Saint Paul and Dean Barwick School, Witherslack Westmorland 1971 p.8'
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Barwick, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.