Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/358

 Barwick of reclaiming to loyalty some who had been led away by the great speakers of the Long parliament; among others Sir Thomas Middleton and Colonel Roger Pope. The services which Barwick rendered to the royal cause were immense. He had a large share in bringing about the treaty of the Isle of Wight; and after the death of Charles I he at once transferred his allegiance and active services to Charles II. But his health was terribly shattered, partly by over-anxious work, partly by grief at the loss of his royal master; and had not his two brothers, Peter and Edward, come to his assistance, he would have completely broken down. First Peter, and then Edward, helped him by attending the post-office on the days when letters came in or went out; and by this means John's labours were relieved, and 'he, whose interest it was to keep close, was less seen abroad.' The service, however, was a very hazardous one, and the Barwicks were soon betrayed by the treachery of a post-office official named Bostock. John was charged with high treason, and was committed (April 1650), first to the Gatehouse prison at Westminster, and then to the Tower. Neither the threats of torture nor the most magnificent promises could induce him to betray any of the king's secrets; and, with great presence of mind, he managed to burn all his ciphers while the officers were breaking open the doors of his chamber to arrest him, so that his papers disclosed nothing. The history of his life in the Tower is one that might gladden the hearts of vegetarians and total abstainers. He was supposed to be a dying man; indeed his friend, Mr. Otway, had undertaken the care of decently interring him, a task which he expected soon to have to fulfil. But the extreme simplicity of Barwick's diet in the Tower (he lived on herbs and fruit or thin water gruel, and drank nothing but spring water), combined, no doubt, with the necessary abstention from all business—for he was forbidden the use of pen, ink, and paper, and of all books except the Bible—wrought so wonderful a change in his health, that when Mr. Otway, by permission of President Bradshaw, visited him, he could not believe that the hale, stout man who received him was the Dr. Barwick whom he expected to find a living skeleton. For two years and four months Barwick was kept in durance. Mr. Browne, the deputy-lieutenant of the Tower, was so struck with his christian demeanour that he was won over to the religion of his prisoner, and had his child baptised by Barwick according to the rites of the church of England. Mr. West, lieutenant of the Tower, was so attracted by Barwick, that he soon relaxed the rigour with which the prisoner had at first been treated. Barwick was released, without any trial, in August 1652, and repaired first to his old friend and patron, Bishop Morton, who received him with the utmost cordiality; he next visited his aged parents, and then resided for some months in the house of Sir T. Eversfield in Sussex. He finally took up his abode in his brother Peter's house in St. Paul's Churchyard, and renewed his management of the king's correspondence with as much care, secresy, and success as ever. He visited Dr. Hewitt, preacher at St. Gregory's, when he was imprisoned for conspiring against Cromwell, and attended him at the last scene on the scaffold (June 1658), when he received from him a ring with the motto 'Alter Aristides,' which he wore until his death. He was also with Bishop Morton in his last moments (22 Sept. 1659), preached his funeral sermon, and wrote his life (1660). Barwick took as important a part in the affairs of the church as in those of the state, receiving valuable aid in this department from Dr. Allestree. As the old bishops were, one by one, dying off, and no new ones were consecrated in their place, apprehensions were entertained lest the episcopal succession should be lost. In 1659 Barwick was employed to ride about among the surviving bishops, and gather their opinions about preserving the succession. He was then sent over by the bishops to report the state of church affairs to the king at Breda. There he preached before the king, and was immediately appointed one of the royal chaplains; he presented to Charles many petitions on behalf of his friends, but none on his own behalf. He showed the same unselfishness at the Restoration; he relinquished his right to his fellowship at St. John's, because the intruder had the character of being 'a hopeful young man of learning and probity.' He showed his gratitude to his old tutor at St. John's, Mr. Fothergill, by procuring for him a prebend at York; but for himself he was quite content to be reinstated in his old preferments. But his services to church and king were too great to be overlooked. It was first proposed to make him bishop of Man; but the see, which, under any circumstances, he would have refused, could not be offered to him, as the Countess of Derby required it for her own chaplain. The king then desired to make him bishop of Carlisle; but he absolutely declined to accept a mitre at all, lest people should imagine that his zeal to maintain the episcopal succession arose from a hope that he should some day be a bishop. He accepted, however, the deanery of Durham, to which