Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/219

 BARKER, THOMAS RICHARD (1799–1870), independent minister, born in London on 30 Nov. 1799, was entered at Christ's Hospital in 1807, where he remained until his seventeenth year. Having reached the position of deputy Grecian, he was anxious to proceed to Cambridge to prosecute his classical studies, with a view to taking holy orders. His parents, however, who were strict and conscientious nonconformists, refused to give their consent to this scheme, to his bitter, though only temporary, chagrin. After a brief interval he determined to devote himself to the work of the independent ministry, entering Homerton Old College with the view of preparing himself for the duties of that calling in 1821. He married the same or the following year, thereby cutting short his college course. In 1822 he entered upon the active duties of the ministry as the pastor of a village church at Alresford, Hampshire, whence two years later he removed to Harpenden, near St. Albans. Here the next nine years of his life were passed in ministerial and educational labour. In 1833 he removed to Uxbridge, and in 1838 was appointed, at the recommendation of Dr. J. Pye Smith, tutor in classics and Hebrew at the college then being established at Birmingham under the name of the Spring Hill College. Here in the following year he was joined by the Rev. Henry Rogers, distinguished as a writer of christian apologetics. Barker was provided with quarters in the college, and was responsible for the maintenance of its discipline, a duty which he discharged for more than thirty years with signal efficiency. In dealing with men, whether his equals or his inferiors, he always showed good sense, tact, and consideration, and was very highly respected and esteemed both by his colleagues and by ministers of other denominations in Birmingham, and indeed throughout the midland counties. The prospect of death was painful to him, and he manifested throughout life a remarkable aversion to speaking of it. His death, however, was perfectly painless. On 22 Nov. 1870 he found himself too weak to rise, and spent the day in bed. In the evening, shortly before nine o'clock, he fell asleep, and though he woke again after a few minutes, he had already lost the power of speech, and died the next morning. He was buried on the 29th in the Birmingham general cemetery. Barker was married more than once. His first wife died in 1833. He left a wife, two daughters, and three sons, of whom one, the Rev. Philip C. Barker, is now professor of mathematics at Rotherham Congregational College, Sheffield.



BARKER, WILLIAM (fl. 1572), translator, was educated in the university of Cambridge at the cost of Queen Anne Boleyn. He appears to have commenced M.A. in 1540, and to have been a member either of Christ's College or of St. John's College. After travelling in Italy, he served as one of the members for Great Yarmouth in the parliaments which met in January 1557–8, January 1558–9, and April 1571, and was M.P. for Bramber in 1562–3. He was one of the Duke of Norfolk's secretaries, and was deeply implicated in that nobleman's plots. About 4 Sept. 1571 he was committed to the Tower. At first he denied what was imputed to him, but he was soon induced by fear of the rack to make confessions which seriously involved the duke, who, however, denied many of his statements, and contemptuously styled him an Italianified Englishman.

Barker was probably the author of the following works:
 * 1) ‘Epitaphia et inscriptiones lugubres, cum in Italia animi causa peregrinatur, collecta,’ Lond. 1554, 1566, 4to.
 * 2) ‘St. Basil the Great, his Exhortation to his kinsmen to the studie of the Scriptures’ translated, Lond. 1557, 8vo.
 * 3) ‘The viii bookes of Xenophon, containing the institution, schole, and education of Cyrus, the noble king of Persye: also his civil and principal estate, his expedition into Babilon, Syria, and Egypt, and his exhortation before his death to his children. Translated out of Greek into English,’ Lond. 1567, 8vo. Another edition containing only six books was printed by R. Wolfe, Lond. n. d. Dedicated to William, earl of Pembroke.
 * 4) ‘The Fearfull Fancies of the Florentine Cooper. Written in Tuscane by John Baptist Gelli, one of the free studie of Florence. And for recreation translated into English,’ Lond. 1568, 1599, 8vo.



BARKER, WILLIAM BURCKHARDT (1810?–1856), orientalist, the son of John Barker, was born about 1810, at which time his father was consul at Aleppo [see, 1771–1849]. From both his parents he inherited a singular linguistic aptitude. He was the godson of John Louis Burckhardt, who, about the time of his birth, was for several months the guest of his father. He was brought to England in 1819, and