Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet
Sir John Barrow Second Secretary to the Admiralty | |
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| In office 22 May 1804 – 28 April 1845 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Tucker |
| Succeeded by | William Baillie-Hamilton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 June 1764 London, Middlesex , England |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Occupation | linguist , writer |
Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet,
Early life
Barrow was born the only child of Roger Barrow, a tanner in the village of Dragley Beck, in the parish of Ulverston, Lancashire.[1] He was a pupil at Town Bank Grammar School, Ulverston, but left at the age of 13 to found a Sunday school for poor local children.
Barrow was employed as superintending clerk of an iron foundry at Liverpool. At only 16, he went on a whaling expedition to Greenland. By his twenties, he was teaching mathematics, in which he had always excelled, at a private school in Greenwich.[2][3]
China
Barrow taught mathematics to the son of Sir
Barrow ceased to be officially connected with Chinese affairs after the return of the embassy in 1794, but he always took much interest in them, and on critical occasions was frequently consulted by the
Some historians attribute the 'stagnation thesis' to Barrow; that China was an extremely civilized nation that was in a process of decay by the time of European contact.[4]
South Africa
In 1797, Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney as private secretary in his mission to settle the government of the newly acquired
During his travels through South Africa, Barrow compiled copious notes and sketches of the countryside that he was traversing. The outcome of his journeys was a map which, despite its numerous errors, was the first published modern map of the southern parts of the
Career in the Admiralty
Barrow returned to Britain in 1804 and was appointed
In his position at the Admiralty, Barrow was a great promoter of
Retirement and legacy
Barrow retired from public life in 1845 and devoted himself to writing a history of the modern Arctic voyages of discovery (1846), as well as his autobiography, published in 1847.[2] He died suddenly on 23 November 1848.[2] The Sir John Barrow monument was built in his honour on Hoad Hill overlooking his home town of Ulverston in 1850, though locally it is more commonly called Hoad Monument.[10] Mount Barrow and Barrow Island in Australia are believed to have been named after him.[11]
Barrow's legacy has been met with a mixed analysis. Some historians regard Barrow as an instrument of imperialism who portrayed Africa as a resource rich land devoid of any human or civilized elements.[12] Other historians consider Barrow to have promoted humanitarianism and rights for South Africans.[4] His renewal of Arctic voyages in search of the Northwest Passage and the Open Polar Sea has also been criticized, with author Fergus Fleming remarking that "perhaps no other man in the history of exploration has expended so much money and so many lives in so desperately pointless a dream".[13]
Private life
Barrow married
In fiction
Barrow in his role as Second Secretary is portrayed as a character in Hornblower and the Crisis by C. S. Forester.[18]
Bibliography
Besides 95 articles in the Quarterly Review,[3] Barrow published among other works:[2]
- Barrow, John (1792). A Description of Pocket and Magazine Cases of Mathematical Drawing Instruments, in which is explained the Use of each Instrument, and particularly, of the Sector and plain Scale, in the Solutions of a variety of Problems; likewise the Description, Construction, and Use of Gunter's Scale. London: J & W Watkins.
- — (1804). Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, And Comparison, Made And Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen. London: T. Cadell And W. Davies. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- — (1806). A Voyage to Cochinchina in the Years 1792 and 1793. London: T. Cadell And W. Davies. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
- — (1806). Travels into The Interior of Southern Africa. London: T. Cadell And W. Davies. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- — (1807). Some Account of the Public Life, And A Selection From The Unpublished Writings, of The Earl of McCartney. London: T. Cadell And W. Davies. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- — (1818). A Chronological History of Voyages into The Arctic Regions. London: John Murray. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: (1831) Its Cause and Consequences. John Murray. 1831.
- — (1843). The life, voyages, and exploits of Admiral Sir Francis Drake : with numerous original letters from him and the Lord High Admiral to the Queen and great officers of state. London: John Murray.
- — (1838). The Life of Richard Earl Howe, K.G., Admiral of the Fleet, And General of Marines. London: John Murray. Retrieved 15 August 2009.[19]
- An Auto-Biographical Memoir of Sir John Barrow, Bart, Late of the Admiralty. Including Reflections, Observations, and Reminiscences at Home and Abroad, from Early Life to Advanced Age; Murray, 1847 (reissued by ISBN 978-1-108-00470-1)
- — (1839). The Life of George Lord Anson, Admiral of The Fleet; Vice-Admiral of Great Britain; And First Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, Previous To, And During, The Seven-Years' War. London: John Murray. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- — (1840). The Life of Peter The Great (1908 ed.). London: John Murray. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- — (1845). A Description of Pitcairn's Island And Its Inhabitants (Harper's Stereotype Edition, 1845). New York: Harper & Brothers. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- — (1846). Voyages of Discovery And Research Within The Arctic Regions, From The Year 1818 to the Present Time. London: John Murray. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- Life & Correspondence of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith G.C.B. – London: Richard Bentley, 1848 (See William Sidney Smith.)
- — (1848). Sketches of the Royal Society And Royal Society Club. London: John Murray. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- Staunton, George Thomas; John Barrow (1856). Memoirs of the Chief Incidents of the Public Life of Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart. London: L. Booth. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
He was also the author of several valuable contributions to the seventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Other reading
- Crusades against Frost:Frankenstein, Polar Ice, and Climate Change in 1818 – Siobhan Carroll.[20]
- Barrow's Boys – Fergus Fleming (1998)[21]
See also
References
- ^ Prior to 1 April 1974 Ulverston was in Lancashire
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Anonymous 1911.
- ^ a b c d "Sir John Barrow 1764–1848". Ulverston Town Council. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- ^ a b c Huigens, Siegfriend (2007). Verkenningen van Zuid-Afrika: achttiende-eeuwse reizigers aan de Kaap. Walburg Pers. p. 139.
- ^ Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa vol 2 (1970)
- ^ Fergus Fleming. Barrow's Boys (Kindle Edition). Kindle Location 242–252
- ISBN 978-0259441045.
- ^ "No. 19241". The London Gazette. 17 February 1835. p. 284.
- ^ Markham, Sir Clements Robert (1881). The Fifty Years' Work of the Royal Geographical Society. J. Murray. p. 23.
- ^ "The Sir John Barrow Monument". Ulverston Town Council. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ Prettyman, Ernest. "Index to Tasmanian Place Names". Tasmanian Archives Online. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
- )
- ISBN 0-8021-3794-6.
- ^ "Rootsweb: South-Africa-L Re: Truter". Archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
- ^ South African Botanical Art – Marion Arnold (Fernwood Press 2001)
- ^ Cook, James (1860). Barrow, John (ed.). Captain Cook's Voyages of Discovery. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. Retrieved 2 October 2020 – via The British Library.
- required.)
- OCLC 6520395.
'Captain Hornblower has been engaged on gathering information from the French coast for the last two years,' interposed Barrow. 'His name was always appearing in Cornwallis's dispatches, Mr Marsden.'
- ^ "Review of The Life of Richard Earl Howe, K.G., Admiral of the Fleet, and General of Marines by Sir John Barrow". The Quarterly Review. 62: 1–67. June 1838.
- S2CID 145150645.
- ^ Bibliopolis
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Barrow.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Anonymous (1911). "Barrow, Sir John". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
- Fleming, Fergus (1998). Barrow's Boys. London: Granta. ISBN 1-86207-286-8.
- William Jardine Proudfoot (1861), 'Barrow's Travels in China': An investigation into the origin and authenticity of the "facts and observations" related in a work entitled "Travels in China, by John Barrow, F.R.S." (afterwards Sir J. Barrow Bart.) Preceded by a preliminary inquiry into the nature of the "powerful motive" of the same author, and its influence on his duties at the Chinese capital, as comptroller to the British Embassy, in 1793, London: G. Philip, OL 13515010M
External links
- Works by Sir John Barrow at Biodiversity Heritage Library
- Works by Sir John Barrow at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Sir John Barrow at Open Library
- Works by Sir John Barrow at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Sir John Barrow at Internet Archive
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