Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/355

Barton published in 1644 (, Catal. 1518). It was reprinted and altered in 1645, 1646, 1651, 1654, and later. The text having been revised for ‘the last time’ by its author, it was posthumously republished in 1682. In the preface Barton says: ‘I have (in this my last translation) corrected all the harsh passages and added a great number of second metres.’ He continues: ‘The Scots of late have put forth a Psalm-book mostwhat composed out of mine and Mr. Rouse's; but it did not give full satisfaction, for somebody hath been at charge to put forth a new edition of mine, and printed some thousands of mine, in Holland, as it is reported. But whether they were printed there or no I am in doubt; for I am sure that 1,500 of my books were heretofore printed by stealth in England and carried over to Ireland.’ In 1654 he had prepared the way for his enlarged and improved Psalms by publishing ‘A View of the many Errors and some gross Absurdities in the old Translations of the Psalms in English Metre’ (Douce's copy in Bodleian). In 1659 he published ‘A Century of Select Hymns.’ This was enlarged in 1668 to ‘Four Centuries,’ and in 1688 to ‘Six Centuries,’ the last being edited by his son, Edward Barton, minister of Welford in Northamptonshire. His ‘Centuries’ were dedicated to Sir Matthew Hale. Richard Baxter suggested that Barton should specially translate and versify the ‘Te Deum.’ Late in life Barton was vicar of St. Martin's, Leicester. He is probably to be identified with the William Barton who was vicar of Mayfield, Staffordshire, at the opening of the civil wars, and who is described in a certificate presented to the House of Lords 19 June 1643 as ‘a man of godly life, and able and orthodox in his ministry,’ and as ‘having been forced to desert his flock and family by the plundering cavaliers of Staffordshire’ (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v. 92 a). In Cole's ‘Athen. Cantab.’ he is described as a ‘conforming Puritan.’ From Oliver Heywood's ‘Obituaries’ we learn the time of his death: ‘1678. Mr. William Barton of St. Martin's in Leicester died in May, aged 80.’ Notwithstanding the many editions these ‘Psalms’ and ‘Hymns’ ran through, they are of very slender literary value.

[Heber's and Bliss's Catalogues; Bagford, Harleian MS. 5921; Simon Brown's Preface to his Book of Hymns (1720); communication from Mr. W. T. Brooke, London; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus.]  BARVITUS (fl. 545) was a Scotch saint, said to have been the disciple of St. Brandan, and his companion in his wanderings. Dempster states that he wrote the life of his teacher, and flourished about 658, and that the Scotch church kept 5 Jan. sacred to his memory. Other authorities refer to one Barnitus, not Barvitus, as the saint from whose accounts of his own experience St. Brandan was tempted to go on his search for the Fortunate Isles, but Barnitus and Barvitus were apparently variants of one name. A Scotch breviary says that Barvitus' body, or relics, was worshipped at Dreghorn. The exact connection of the saint with St. Brandan seems uncertain. The only work assigned to Barvitus by Dempster is one entitled ‘De Brandani Rebus.’ Tanner suggests that this may be the old manuscript life of St. Brandan still preserved in Lincoln College library at Oxford. But Mr. Coxe assigns the handwriting of this manuscript to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

[Dempster's Hist. Eccles.; Tanner; Forbes's Kalendar, 183, 274; Camerarius, De Scotorum Fortitudine, 79; Ferrarius's Catalogus Generalis; Capgrave's Nova Legenda Angliæ, fol. 44 b; Coxe's Cat. Coll. Linc. Cod. Lat. xxvii. 14.]  BARWELL, LOUISA MARY (1800–1885), musician and educational writer, was born in the parish of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, on 4 March 1800. She was the daughter of Richard Mackenzie Bacon [q. v.] by his wife Jane Louisa (Noverre), born 1768, died 1808. At the age of eighteen she was associated with her father in the editorship of the ‘Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review.’ She had great musical capacity with an exquisite voice, and played from score at sight. After her marriage with John Barwell, wine merchant at Norwich (born 1798, died 1876), she devoted much attention to the composition of educational works, developing a remarkable gift for the comprehension of child nature, physical and mental. She frequently contributed to the ‘Quarterly Journal of Education’ from about the year 1831, anticipating some of the modern views and plans of education. Her husband, who shared her interest in this subject, was largely instrumental in securing the success of a scheme by which a charity day-school for girls at Norwich was converted into an industrial training-school for girls. With Von Fellenberg, in whose school at Hofwyl all their sons were placed, the Barwells formed an intimate friendship. In the bygone literary society of Norwich, portrayed by Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Barwell held an honoured place. Her closest friend was Lady Noel Byron, whose correspondence with her was constant, and whose papers she arranged, in