Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/315

Barrowby  and Moral Subjects’ (1819), and three volumes of ‘Familiar Sermons’ (1818–21).

[Barrow's writings and private information.]  BARROWBY, WILLIAM (1682–1751), physician, the son of Dr. William Barrowby, a physician established first in Oxford and afterwards in London, was born in London, and proceeded to Trinity College, Oxford, whence he passed to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and there took the degrees of M.B. in 1709, and of M.D. in 1713; he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1718, and F.R.S. in 1721. He published ‘Syllabus Anatomicus prælectionibus annuatim habendis adaptatus,’ London, 1736. He translated two medical works by Astruc in 1737–8. He is stated, on somewhat doubtful authority, to have been one of the authors of ‘A Letter to the Real and Genuine Pierce Dod, M.D., actual physician of St. Bartholomew's Hospital: plainly exposing the low absurdity or malice of a late spurious pamphlet falsely ascribed to that learned physician, 1746.’ A controversy about inoculation was going on, and Dr. Dod had published some notes of cases which illustrated his view that the practice was dangerous. He had added other cases and an empty Latin letter. The long pamphlet of Dod is written in a pompous style, and contains very little medical information. The title of the attack by Barrowby and Schomberg indicates its method of ridicule. The task was an easy one, but the performance is abusive, coarse, and without scientific merit. The only happy hit in it is on the case of Lord Dorchester, who had taken an overdose of opium. Dod had mentioned among many irrelevant facts that the nobleman when recovering sent for his chaplain to read to him, and Barrowby says: ‘We have a beautiful instance of the pious simplicity of past ages, p. 34, in the marquis's calling for his chaplain to read to him when he grew less desirous of sleep, whereas we observe most modern lords employ their chaplains chiefly from an aversion to all other opiates.’ In the Rawlinson MSS. (in the Bodleian) it is said of Barrowby that ‘this wretch, tho' a monster of lewdness and prophaneness,’ took part in the riots at the Drury Lane Theatre in December 1743. He is satirised in a book called the ‘World Unmasked’ (1738). Barrowby became Dr. Dod's colleague at St. Bartholomew's in 1750, when for the first time the hospital had three physicians instead of two. Dr. Barrowby held office for less than two years, and died on 30 Dec. 1751 of cerebral hæmorrhage. His portrait was painted by T. Jenkins, and has been engraved.

[Munk's Roll, ii.; Manuscript Journals of St. Bartholomew's Hospital; Watt's Bibl. Brit. (sub ‘Barroughby’); Morning Advertiser for December 1743.]  BARRY, ANN SPRANGER (1734–1801), actress, was born in Bath, in which city her father, whose name was Street, is said to have been an ‘eminent apothecary.’ A disappointment in love led to a visit to Yorkshire, where, rather than in Bath, long a centre of theatrical activity, she seems to have acquired a taste for the stage. Early in life Ann Street married a Mr. Dancer, an actor, who seems to have died young. The first appearance of Mrs. Dancer probably took place at Portsmouth about 1756. The following year she and her husband are said to have played in York. Her first recorded performance took place in the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, the date being, according to Hitchcock (Historical View of the Irish Stage), 8 Nov. 1758. On this occasion she played Cordelia to the Lear of Spranger Barry [q. v.] Her next character was Monimia in ‘The Orphan.’ Her early career was very far from successful. In Dublin she remained nine years, assiduously practising her art, and obtaining slow recognition from the public. Her line was tragedy, her most important characters at this period being Millamant, Andromache, Juliet, Desdemona, Belvidera, and Jane Shore. Occasionally, however, in such rôles as Angelica in ‘Love for Love,’ or Polly Peachum in the ‘Beggars Opera,’ she ventured into comedy. Some scandal attaches to her life, but the love for Barry, with which from an early period she seems to have been smitten, kept her constant to the stage and to Dublin. Her mother left her a weekly pension to be paid her on the condition of abandoning her profession. She enjoyed this small sum during her lifetime, as the relation entitled to the reversion declined to claim the forfeit. In 1767 Barry, compelled to abandon the management of the Crow Street Theatre, returned to London. Mrs. Dancer, who in 1766 had played with him at the Haymarket Opera House one short season, this being her first appearance in London, came with him to town, and accepted an engagement from Foote to play with Barry at what was known as the little house in the Haymarket. Here, with indifferent success, she appeared as Juliet to the Romeo of Barry. In 1767–8 she accompanied Barry to Drury Lane, appearing as Cordelia. During this and subsequent seasons her reputation advanced to its highest point. In 1768 she is first heard of in the playbills as Mrs. Barry. The season