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Baron of Baron from himself. After 1650 Baron disappears, and nothing more is heard concerning him.

[Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets; Winstanley's Lives of the Poets; Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum; Howell's Letters.]  BARON, STEPHEN (d. 1520?), a Franciscan friar of the Strict Observance, was educated in the university of Cambridge, where he acquired fame as a preacher. He became confessor to King Henry VIII, and provincial of his order in England. He died soon after 1520. His works are : 1. ‘Sermones Declamati corā alma vniuersitate Cātibrigiēsi per venerandum patrem fratrem Stephanum baronē fratrum minorū de obseruātia nūcupatorū regni Anglie prouincialē vicariū ac confessorē regiū Impressi lōdonijs per wynandū de worde (ī the fletestrete) ad signum solis moram trahētem,’ n. d., square 8vo., It is printed in double columns, black letter. 2. ‘Incipit tractatulus eiusdem venerādi patris De regimine principū ad serenissimum regē anglie henricū octauum. Impressus lōdonijs,’ &c. as in the preceding work, to which it was undoubtedly intended to be an appendix. It is dedicated to King Henry VIII.

[MS. Addit. 5863, f. 141; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 42, 670, 833; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 232; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 77; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 23; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, 218, 219.]  BARONS, or BARNES, WILLIAM (d. 1505), bishop of London and master of the rolls, about whom singularly little is known, appears to have been educated at Oxford, where he took the degree of LL.D., but in what college or hall he studied has not been ascertained. Neither is it known when he took orders; but he was already a conspicuous man when, in 1500, on the vacancy of the see of Canterbury, he became commissary of the chapter and of the prerogative court. That same year he obtained the livings of East Peckham in Kent, and of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire; in 1501 that of Gedney in Lincolnshire; in 1502 that of Bosworth in Leicestershire; and in 1503 that of Tharfield in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon.

In 1501, at the marriage of Prince Arthur and Katharine of Arragon, when the banns were asked in St. Paul's, it was arranged that the king's secretary should ‘object openly in Latin against the said marriage,’ alleging reasons why it could not be lawful, and that he should be answered in the same language by Dr. Barons, who was to produce the dispensation ( Letters and Papers of Richard III and Henry VII, i. 414). This programme was no doubt followed. Barons was evidently in high favour, and was made master of the rolls on 1 Feb. following (1502). On 24 Jan. 1503 he assisted in laying the first stone of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster. On 20 June following he was appointed one of the commissioners for the new treaty with Ferdinand for Katharine's second marriage. On 2 Aug. 1504 he was appointed by papal provision bishop of London on Warham's translation to Canterbury, Henry VII having written to the pope in his favour on 8 July preceding. He received the temporalities on 13 Nov., and gave up his office of master of the rolls the same day. He was consecrated on 26 Nov. But he enjoyed the bishopric scarcely a whole year, for he died on 9 or 10 Oct. 1505.

[Godwin, p. 190; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), ii. 694; Newcourt, i. 24; Rymer, xiii. 78, 111; Bergenroth's Spanish Calendar, i. No. 364; Brown's Venetian Calendar, i. 840; Foss's Judges.]  BARONSDALE, WILLIAM (d. 1608), physician, was born in Gloucestershire, probably about 1530–40. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, being admitted a scholar 5 Nov. 1551, and took his first degree B.A. in 1554–5, that of M.A. 1556, and that of M.D. in 1568. He was a senior fellow and bursar of his college, and twice held the lectureship on medicine founded by Linacre, being elected to the office first on 10 Jan. 1561–2, and again 26 May 1564. Proceeding to London, he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, though in what year is not recorded; and afterwards held the offices of counsellor in 1588, 1600, 1602, and 1604; censor from 1581 to 1585; and treasurer in 1583 (being the first fellow appointed to this newly founded office), 1604, 1605, and 1607. Further, he was president of the college for eleven successive years, from 1589 to 1600.

Nothing is known of this physician beyond his official connection with the London college, showing him to have been an important man in his day.

[Munk's Roll of the College of Physicians, 2nd ed. i. 73; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 492.]  BAROWE, or BARROW, THOMAS (d. 1497?), ecclesiastic and judge, was rector of Olney in Buckinghamshire, and was appointed to a prebend in St. Stephen's Chapel in the palace of Westminster in July 1483, shortly after the accession of Richard III, and in September of the same year to the master-