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BARCLAY,
the same name as the English Berkeley, the
Scottish Barclays being originally descended from
Roger de Berkeley, who is said to have come into
England with William the Conqueror, and according
to the custom of the time, assumed his surname
from Berkeley castle in Gloucestershire, the place
of his residence and possessions.
During the twelfth century a branch of the
Berkeley family settled in Scotland, and in 1165
we find Walter de Berkeley chamberlain of the
kingdom (Crauford’s Officers of State, page
253). The name is of long standing in
Kincardineshire. In the foundation charter of the
Abbey of Arbroath from William the Lion in 1178,
in conveying to that institution the lands of
Mondynes, in the parish of Fordoun, it is said, "Dedi
etiam eis unam carucatam terre in Monethyne, super
aquath de Bervyne, quam Willus de Munfort et
Umfridus de Berkeley, et Walterus Scotus et
Alanus, filius Symonis, et allii probi homines,
mei per preceptum meum eis mensuravernut."
The writer of the account of the Barclays of
Mathers, afterwards Urie, in Nisbet’s System of
Heraldry, doubtless one of that family, desirous
of making it even more ancient than the Conquest,
expresses his opinion that their early settlement
in Scotland was before that event, and that they
were not of Norman race at all. He says, (Nisbet,
vol. ii. page 245,) whether the ancient
surname of Berkeley or Barclay be originally of
Caledonian, British, or Saxon extraction, is what
cannot now be concluded, but this much is vouched
that in the reign of William the Lion there were
four great and eminent families of that name
settled in Scotland, namely, Walter de Berkeley,
William de Berkeley, Humphrey de Berkeley, and
Robert de Berkeley—the two first having been great
chamberlains of the kingdom. Walter de Berkeley,
the first named, was one of the pledges for King
William the Lion to Henry the Second of England.
He left two daughters, one of whom, Margaret,
married Sir Alexander Seton of Seton, ancestor of
the earls of Winton. This Walter de Berkeley is
supposed to have been the nephew of Theobald de
Berkeley, the progenitor of the Barclays of
Mathers in Kincardineshire, who lived in the reign
of David the First, and had two sons, Humphry and
John.
Humphry the elder, designed of Gairntully,
was a liberal benefactor to the abbey of Arbroath,
and is undoubtedly the same who is mentioned in
the above cited charter of William the Lion. On
part of his large possessions in the
Mearns, namely Balfeith, Monboddo, Glenfarquhar,
&c., in the parish of Fordoun, he granted a
donation to the abbot and monks thereof, which was
confirmed by William the Lion, and was renewed and
augmented by his only child Richenda, and her
husband, Robert, ancestor of the earls of
Glencairn. This second donation was confirmed by
Alexander the Second. After the death of her
husband, the monks prevailed on Richenda to
dispone these lands to them for the third time,
which third donation was confirmed by Alexander
the Second at Aberbrothwick, 7th March, 1243.
Humphry’s brother, John de Berkeley, who succeeded
him, turned the abbot and monks out of all the
lands so granted to them, but was obliged to enter
into an agreement with them, confirmed by
Alexander the Second, whereby, in lieu of what he
had thus dispossessed them of, he gave them the
mill of Conveth, with the appurtenances thereof,
taking them bound, at the same time, to pay to him
and his heirs, in all time coming, the sum of
thirteen merks of silver yearly.
John was succeeded by his son Robert de
Berkeley, and he by his son Hugh de Berkeley, who
obtained a charter from King Robert the Bruce upon
Westerton, being lands lying near the above
mentioned mill of Conveth. His son, Alexander de
Berkeley, born in 1326, was the first designed of
Mathers. He obtained these lands, situated in the
southern district of Kincardineshire, on his
marriage with Katherine, sister of William de
Keith, great marischal of Scotland, whose charter
conveying them, dated in 1351, is confirmed by
King David the Second, at Perth, 18th March the
same year. He was succeeded by his son, David de
Berkeley, whose grandson, also named David de
Berkeley, was that laird of Mathers, who with the
lairds of Lauriston, Arbuthnott, Pittarrow and
Halkerton, was accessary to the slaughter of John
Melville of Glenbervie, sheriff of the Mearns in
the reign of James the First, as formerly
narrated, and who built the castle called the Kaim
of Mathers. (See ante, page 143, article
ARBUTHNOTT.) He married Elizabeth, a daughter of
Strachan of Thornton in the same county.
His son Alexander was the first to spell the
family name Barclay. He was living in 1483, as
appears by a charter dated in that year, granted
to him "by his kinsman, William, earl Marischal."
He married Katherine, daughter of Wishart of
Pittarnow. His son, David Barclay of
Mathers, married Janet, a daughter of Irvine of
Drum. Their eldest son, Alexander Barclay of
Mathers, was living in 1497. He married Marjory,
second daughter of James Auchinleck, laird of
Glenbervie, the son of John Auchinleck of that ilk
in Forfarshire, and who, by marrying the only
daughter of the sheriff, John Melville, killed by
the barons of the Mearns, obtained his estate of
Glenbervie.
David Barclay of Mathers, born in 1580, the
fifth in descent from this Alexander Barclay, and
the twelfth laird of Mathers of the name of
Barclay, by his extravagance and living much at
court, was obliged to sell the estate first of
Mathers, after it had been in possession of the
family nearly three hundred years, and then the
old patrimonial lands, after being in the family
upwards of five hundred years. He married
Elizabeth Livingston, daughter of Livingston of
Dunnipace, and had a daughter, Anne, first married
to Douglas of Tilwhilly, and secondly to Strachan,
afterwards bishop of Brechin; and several Sons; of
whom John and Alexander died young; David became
his heir and representative; Robert was rector of
the Scots college at Paris, and James, the
youngest, a cornet in a troop of horse, was killed
at the battle of Philiphaugh.
Had the last laird of Mathers of this
family, remembered the advice of that laird, his
ancestor, who first changed the name from Berkeley
to Barclay, as contained in "the Laird of Mathers’
Testament," the estate might still have been in
possession of his descendants. The verses which
pass under this name are as follows:—
"Giff thou desire thy house lang stand,
And thy successors bruik thy land,
Above all things live God in fear,
Intromit nocht with wrangous gear;
Nor conquess nothing wrangously
With thy neighbour keep charity.
See that thou pass not thy estate;
Obey duly thy magistrate:
Oppress not, but support the puire;
To help the commonweill take cuire.
Use no deceit; mell not with treason;
And to all men do richt and reason.
Both unto word and deed be true;
All kinds of wickedness eschew.
Slay no man, nor thereto consent;
Be nocht cruel, but patient.
Ally ay in some guid place,
With noble, honest, godly, race.
Hate huirdom, and all vices flee;
Be humble; haunt guid companye.
Help thy friend, and do nae wrang,
And God shall cause thy house stand lang.
David, afterwards Colonel David Barclay of Urie,
was born in 1610. He entered the army, and served
as a volunteer under Gustavus Adolphus, king of
Sweden. Having attained the rank of major, he
remained abroad till the civil wars broke out in
his own country, when he returned home and became
colonel of a regiment of horse on the side of the
king. On the accession of Cromwell’s party to
power, he retired from active military service,
and in 1647 purchased the estate of Urie in
Kincardineshire, from William earl Marischal.
After the Restoration he was committed prisoner to
Edinburgh Castle upon some groundless charge of
hostility to the government, but was soon
liberated, through the interest of the earl of
Middleton, with whom he had served in the civil
war. During his imprisonment he was converted to
Quakerism by the celebrated laird of Swinton, who
was confined in the same prison. (See SWINTON,
surname of.) He married Catherine, daughter of Sir
Robert Gordon of Gordonstown, the premier baronet
of Nova Scotia, and well known historian of the
house of Sutherland, second son of the earl of
Sutherland, and second cousin of King James the
Sixth. By her he had two daughters, Lucy and Jean,
and three sons, Robert, John, and David. Lucy and
David died unmarried. Jean married Sir Ewen
Cameron of Lochiel, to whom she bore eight
children. Robert, the eldest son, who became
celebrated as the apologist for the Quakers, is
afterwards noticed. John, the second son, settled
in East Jersey in America, where he married and
left issue.
In the Ragman Roll, among those who swore
fealty to Edward the First, in 1296, occurs the
name of Patricius de Berkeley. This surname was
then so numerous in Scotland, that the different
families are not easily distinguishable. Besides
the Barclays of Mathers, there were the Barclays
of Towie, and those of Gartly or Garthie, in
Aberdeenshire; of Collairnie, in Fife; of Touch,
descended from the latter; of Johnston, descended
from the family of Mathers; of Balma— kewan, the
first of which family was the second son of David
Barclay of Johnston; and other families of the
same name.
In the charters of King William the Lion to
the abbey of Dunfermline, amongst the witnesses
are Walter de Berkeley and Robert de Berkeley. In
the reign of Alexander the Second, Malcolm, earl
of Angus, married the daughter of Sir Humphry
Berkeley. In the register of Arbroath is a charter
granted by Malcolm, earl of Fife (who lived in the
reign of Alexander the Third), to Andrew de
Swinton, to which Roger de Berkeley is a witness.
In 1284 Hugo de Berkeley was Justiciarius
Laodonice. His name appears as a witness to a
charter of Alexander the Third, to the monks of
Melrose, dated at Traquair the 12th December, in
the sixteenth year of his reign. He is supposed to
be the same Hugo de Berkeley who had half of the
barony of Crawfordjohn in Lanarkshire, and was
sometimes designed of Crawfordjohn and sometimes
of Kilbirnie, which, in 1471, went to the
Craufurds by marriage. In the register of Melrose
(p. 62) Sir Walter Berkeley, knight, sheriff of
Aberdeen, is so designed in a charter of King
Robert the Bruce to that town. His seal of arms
was the same with those of the lords Berkeley in
England.
In 1315, Sir David Berkeley or Barclay of
Cairny-Barclay in Fife, married Margaret de
Brechin, daughter of Sir David de Brechin, lord of
Brechin. He was one of the chief associates of
Robert the Bruce, and was present at most of his
battles, particularly Methven, where he was taken
prisoner. (Barbour, page 32.) After the
successful issue of the struggle he was appointed
sheriff of the county of Fife. (Sibbald’s Hist.
of Fife, page 288.) On the forfeiture of his
brother-in-law, Sir David de Brechin in 1321 (see
BRECHIN, lord of), King Robert bestowed
upon him the lordship of Brechin, the barony of
Rothiemay, the lands of Kinloch and part of
Glenesk, which had belonged to his brother-in-law.
He had for his paternal estate the barony of old
Lindores and the lands of Cairny of Fife. His
strong castle stood near the loch of Lindores. He
gave to the monks of Balmerino, in pure alms, a
right of fishing in the river Tay. This Sir David
Barclay, lord of Brechin, is also frequently
mentioned in the wars of King David Bruce, to whom
he faithfully adhered even when his cause was the
most depressed, and in 1341, by that monarch’s
command, he seized Sir William Bullock,
chamberlain of Scotland, suspected of treason, and
committed him to prison. Having slain John
Douglas, brother of the knight of Liddesdale, at
Forgywood, he was assassinated at Aberdeen on
Shrove Tuesday, 1350, by John of St. Michael and
his accomplices, at the instigation of William
Douglas, knight of Liddesdale, then a
prisoner in England. (Fordun, b. ii. p.
348.) By Margaret de Brechin, his wife, he had
David his heir, and a daughter, Jean, married to
Sir David Fleming of Biggar, by whom he had a
daughter, Marion, the wife of Sir William Maule of
Panmure.
The son, David, second lord of Brechin of
the name of Barclay, granted a charter of the
lands of Kyndestleth to Hugh Barclay, his cousin,
from whom the Barclays of Collairnie in Fife were
descended. (Douglas’s Peerage, vol. i. p.
245.) In 1363 he granted a charter of confirmation
of the lands of Dunmure, lying in his barony of
Lindores, to Roger Mortimer. On 10th January
1362—3 he is witness to a charter of Sir Thomas
Bisset and Isabel de Fife. In 1364 he went to the
wars of Prussia, having obtained a safe conduct
from King Edward the Third to pass through his
dominions, attended by twelve esquires, with their
horses and servants. The date of his death is
unknown. He left one daughter, Margaret, married
to Walter Stewart, earl of Athole and Caithness
and earl palatine of Strathern, second son of King
Robert the Second, by his second wife, Euphemia
Ross, executed in April 1437, for being accessary
to the murder of King James the First. Just before
going to execution he emitted a judicial
declaration that the lordship of Brechin had been
held by him in courtesy of his wife, and that the
right to that lordship after himself belonged to
Sir Thomas Maule of Panmure, nearest heir of his
countess, in right of his grandmother, daughter of
Sir David Barclay of Brechin. (Nisbet's
Heraldry, vol. ii. p. 81.) See ATHOLE, earls
of, ante p. 163, and PANMURE, earls of.
The family of Barclay must have possessed
Collairnie, which is in the parish of Dunbog, for
nearly five hundred years. In 1457. David Barclay
of Collairnie was one of the assessors in a
perambulation between Easter and Wester Kinghorn.
(Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. i. p. 126.) They
also possessed other large estates in Fifeshire.
In 1656 we find Robert Barclay of Collairnie
served heir male to his father, Sir David Barclay,
knight, among others, in the lands of Kilmaron,
Pitblado, Hilton, and Boghall. The Barclays of
Collairnie were heritable bailies of the regality
of Lindores, an office implying great personal
influence or high rank, while it conferred civil
authority of the most varied and extensive
description. On the abolition of the heritable
jurisdictions in 1747, Antonia Barclay of
Collairnie and Mr Harry Barclay, her husband,
received the sum of two hundred and fifteen pounds
sterling, as a compensation for this office. The
family is now extinct, the estate having been sold
about the beginning of the present century to the
late Dr. Francis Balfour of Fernie. In the
appendix to Sibbald’s History of Fife there is a
list of natives of that county who have risen to
eminence in literature or science; among others
mention is made of "the famous William Barclay
(father of John), professor of law at Angiers, who
derived his pedigree from Barclay of Coilairnie."
Of this William Barclay a notice is given below.
Sir Henry Steuart Barclay, baronet, of Coltness,
eldest son of Henry Steuart Barclay, Esq. of
Collairnie, who was youngest brother of the said
baronet, succeeded his cousin as third baronet in
1839. Died in 1851. Baronetcy extinct.
The Barclays of Pierston are an ancient
family in Ayrshire, of distinction so early as the
twelfth century. Sir Robert Barclay of Pierston,
knight, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 22d
October 1668. Sir Robert Barclay, the eighth
baronet, died in 1839. His grandson, Sir Robert
Barclay, born in 1819, succeeded as ninth baronet.
The Barclays of Ardrossan were also an old
family of Ayrshire. In 1471 the line of this
branch of the Barclays terminated in an heiress,
who married Malcolm Craufurd of Greenock, the
founder of the family of Craufurd of Kilbirnie.
The Barclays of Towie or Tolly in
Aberdeenshire are said to have been descended from
John Berkeley, son of Lord Berkeley of
Gloucestershire. He obtained a grant of the estate
of Tolly for his son Alexander Berkeley, about
1100. On the front of the old castle of Towie
Barclay, in the parish of Turriff, this
inscription is cut in stone: "Sir Valter Barclay
foundit the Tollie Mills, 1210." This corroborates
the common opinion, that corn mills turned by
water were introduced into Scotland by the Saxon
followers of Malcolm towards the end of the
eleventh century; for had corn mills previously
existed in the country the founding of a mill
would not have been worth recording. (New Stat.
Account, vol. xii. p. 287.) Immediately above
the door of the old castle of Towie Barclay is the
following inscription, "Sir Alexander Barclay,
foundator, decessit, 1136." It is believed,
however, that the castle was not built before
1593. The Barclays seem to have mingled in the
frays of their time, and are frequently mentioned
in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials. The estate remained
in the same family till it was sold by the Hon.
Charles Maitland Barclay of Tillycoultry, brother
of the earl of Lauderdale, who married Isabel
Barclay, the last heiress, in 1752, and assumed
the name of Barclay. Persons of the name still
exist in the district. From this ancient family
the celebrated Russian general, Field Marshal
Prince Barclay de Tolly, who died in 1818, was
lineally descended.
BARCLAY-ALLARDICE,
the name of a former proprietor of Urie. The
surname of Allardice is derived from the barony of
Alrethes, in Kincardineshire, which, during the
reign of William the Lion, belonged to a family
who assumed its name, in the course of time
softened into Allardice. On the 8th October, 1662,
Sir John Allardice of Allardice, the then chief of
that ancient family, married Lady Mary Graham,
eldest sister and co-heir of William Graham,
eighth earl of Menteith, and second earl of Airth.
He died before November 1690, leaving four
daughters and two sons. The elder son, John
Allardice of Allardice, married, 26th October,
1690, Elizabeth daughter of William Barclay of
Balma— kewan. Leaving no issue, he was succeeded
by his brother, Sir George Allardice of Allardice,
whose grandson’s only daughter, Sarah-Anne
Allardice, born 13th July 1757, was served heiress
of line of the earls of Airth and Menteith, and of
David, earl palatine of Strathern, son of Robert
the Second, king of Scotland. She married in 1777
Robert Barclay of Urie, great-grandson of the
famous apologist for the Quakers (being his second
wife), and in consequence he assumed the name of
Allardice in addition to his own. Their eldest
son, Captain Robert Barclay-Allardice, the
celebrated pedestrian, designed of Urie and
Allardice, became, in right of his mother, heir
general and heir of line of the first earl of
Airth. He was also sole heir of the body of Prince
David, son of Robert the Second, king of Scotland.
He was born 25th August, 1779, and succeeded his
father in 1797, and his mother, (who had married a
second time,) in 1833. In 1842 he published at
Edinburgh, in one volume, ‘An Agricultural Tour
through the United States and Canada.’ He died 1st
May 1854. His only daughter, Margaret, married in
1840 Samuel Ritchie, at one period a private
soldier.
BARCLAY, ALEXANDER,
an elegant poet of the 16th century, is mentioned
by Bishop Bale.
Dr. Bullyn, Hollinshed, and Ritson, as a native of
Scotland, although Pitts, Wood, and some other
English writers, claim him for England. From his
writings it appears that he spent some of his
earlier days at Croydon in Surrey. About 1495 he
went to Oriel College, Oxford, where, or at
Cambridge, he received his education, and took the
degree of D.D. Going afterwards to the continent,
he acquired a knowledge of the Dutch, German,
Italian, and French languages. On his return to
England he entered the church, and became chaplain
to Bishop Cornish, who, in 1508, appointed him one
of the priests or prebendaries of St. Mary, Ottery,
Devonshire. Subsequently he became first a
Benedictine monk of Ely, and afterwards a
Franciscan monk at Canterbury. On the dissolution
of the monasteries in 1539, he became a
Protestant, and was presented to the living of
Great Baddow, in Essex. In 1546 he was vicar of
Wokey, in Somersetshire, and in 1552 he became
rector of All Hallows, London, but did not possess
this living above six weeks. He died at a very
advanced age at Croydon, Surrey, in June, 1552. Of
his personal character different accounts have
been given. Bale, a Protestant, treats his memory
with indignity, and charges him with living a
scandalous and licentious life; while Pitts, a
Roman Catholic, assures us that he directed his
studies to the service of religion, and employed
his time in reading and writing the lives of the
saints. As an improver of English literature he is
entitled to grateful commemoration; and his
industry in enriching the language with
translations, written in a purer style than
belonged to that period, is much commended. His
chief production is a satire, entitled ‘The Ship
of Fools,’ partly a translation and partly an
imitation of a German poem by Sebastian Brandt,
called Navis Stultifera, printed in 1497.
He also translated Sallust’s History of the
Jugurthine War, published in 1557. Among his other
publications is an English translation of the
‘Mirrour of Good Manners,’ a treatise compiled in
Latin by Dominyque Mancyn, for the use of the "juvent
of England." His Eclognes are the earliest
specimens of pastoral poetry in the English
language. (Mackenzie’s Scots Writers.) The
following are some of his principal works:
The Castell of Labour, wherein is Rychesse, Vertue,
and Honour; an allegorical Poem, in seven line
stanzas, trans— lated from the French. Printed by
Wynken de Worde, 1506.
Certain Egloges, containing the Miseries of Courts
and Courtiers, five in number, in English
verse, from AEneas Sylvius’ Miserae Curialium.
Lond. 1508, fol. 1509, 1548, 1570, 4to.
Stultifera Nauis, qua Omnium Mortalium narratur
Stultitia, &c. The Ship of Fooles, wherein is
shewed the folly of all states, with diuers other
Workes adioyned to the same, very profitable and
fruitful for all men. This edition has the Latin
version of James Lodier, pupil of Brandt, the
Author who first translated it from the German,
and also the English translations of Barclay. To
which is annexed, The Mirrour of Good Manners,
containing the four cardinal vertues; compiled, in
Latin, by Dominike Mansoin, and translated into
Englishe, by Alexr. Barclay. English and Latin.
Also cer— tayne Egloges of Alex. Barclay.
Imprented in the cyte of London, in Fletestre (te),
at the signe of Saynte George, by Richard Pynson,
to his cost and charge. Ended the year of our
Sauior M.D.IX. fol. Lond. 1570, folio, printed by
Cawood, J.
The Introductory to Write and to Pronounce Frenche.
London, 1521, folio.
The Famous Chronicle of Warre, whyche the Romaynes
hadde agaynst Jugurth, vsurper of the kyngedome of
Numidie:
whiche Chronicle is compiled in Latin by the
renowned Ro— mayne, Salluste; and translated into
Englishe by Syr Alexander Barklayo, prieste;
nowe perused and corrected by Thomas PavnelL
London, 1557, 8vo.
A Right Fruitful Treatise, entituled, the Myrror
of Good Manners, contaynynge the iiii vertues
called Cardynall, compyled, in Latyn, by Dominike
Mancyn, and translated into Englishe. Printed by
Pynson, no date. fol.
A. B. his figure of our Mother Holy Churche
oppressed by the Frenche king. 4to. Pynson.
BARCLAY, ROBERT,
of Urie, the Apologist for the Quakers, was born
December 23, 1648, at Gordonstown, shire of Moray,
or, according to one authority, at Edinburgh, but
this is incorrect. His father, as already stated,
was Colonel David Barclay, the son of the last
laird of Mathers, and his mother, Catherine
Gordon, was the daughter of Sir Robert Gordon of
Gordonstown, baronet. He was the eldest of three
sons. After receiving the rudiments of education
in his native country, his father sent him to
Paris, to study under the direction of his uncle,
the principal of the Scots college there. His
deportment and character so endeared him to his
uncle that he offered to make him his heir, and to
settle a large estate immediately upon him if he
would remain in France, an offer which he at once
rejected. Having by his uncle’s influence become a
Roman Catholic, he was immediately recalled home.
In 1666 his father embraced the peculiar
principles of the Quakers; and two years
afterwards young
Barclay adopted the same doctrines, and soon
distinguished himself by his talents and zeal in
their vindication. This change had not been
produced without a degree of thought and
investigation almost beyond his years, for he was
not then nineteen. It also gave a decided bias to
his future studies. He learned the Greek and
Hebrew languages, being already proficient in
Latin and French, and to his other acquirements he
added an acquaintance with the writings of the
Fathers, and knowledge of ecclesiastical history.
Andrew Jaffray, one of the Friends, thus writes of
him :—" A little after his coming out of the age
of minority, as it is called, he was made willing,
in the day of God’s power, to give up his body as
a sign and wonder to this generation, and to deny
himself and all in him as a man so far as to
become a fool, for His sake whom he loved, in
going in sackcloth and ashes through the chief
streets of the city of Aberdeen, besides some
services at several steeple houses, and some
sufferings in prison for the truth’s sake."
His first treatise, written with great
vigour, was published at Aberdeen in 1670. It was
entitled ‘Truth cleared of Calumnies,’ in answer
to a book against the Quakers, by the Rev. William
Mitchell. The same year he wrote an appendix
entitled ‘Some things of weighty concernment
proposed in meekness and love, by way of queries,
to the serious consideration of the inhabitants of
Aberdeen, which also may be of use to stick as are
of the same mind with them elsewhere in the
world.’ A reply to the ‘Truth cleared of
Calumnies’ was written by Mitchell; to which
Barclay rejoined with a treatise under the title
of ‘ William Mitchell unmasked, or the staggering
instability of the pretended stable Christian
discovered, his omissions observed, and weakness
unvailed," &c. In 1673 he published ‘A Catechism
and Confession of Faith,’ explanatory of the
doctrines of the Quakers. The design of this work
was to prove that Quakerism was the perfection of
the reformed religion, and that protestants as
they receded from it were so far inconsistent with
themselves, and approached to popery. His next
treatise, published in 1674, entitled ‘The Anarchy
of the Ranters and other Libertines, the Hierarchy
of the Romanists, and other pretended Churches,
equally refused and refuted,’ &c., was intended to
mark the distinction between the rationalists of
his sect, and the enthusiasts ; but some
sentiments concerning church discipline which it
contained, involved him in disputes with some of
his own brethren, and he afterwards published a
vindication of this work. His publications, which
were numerous, involved him in various
contraversies with the students of Aberdeen and
others.
His great work, considered the standard of
Quakerism, entitled ‘An Apology for the true
Christian Divinity, as the same is held forth and
preached by the people called in scorn Quakers,’
appeared in 1675. It was written and published in
Latin, " for the information of strangers," but
the author himself translated it into English, "
for the benefit of his countrymen." The ‘Apology’
was preceded by his ‘Theses Theologicae,’ printed
in Latin, French, German, Dutch, and English. and
addressed to the clergy generally throughout
Europe, requesting their examination and judgment.
In his principal work he attempts to prove that
there is an internal light in man, which is better
fitted to guide him aright in religious matters
than even the Scriptures themselves, the genuine
doctrines of which may be rendered uncertain by
various readings in different manuscripts, and the
fallibility of translators and interpreters.
"Whence," he says, "we may very safely conclude
that Jesus Christ, who promised to be always with
his children, to lead them into all truth, to
guard them against the devices of the enemy, and
to establish their faith upon an unmoveable rock,
left them not to be principally ruled by that
which was subject, in itself, to many
uncertainties, and therefore he gave them his
Spirit as their principal guide, which neither
moths nor time can wear out, nor transcribers nor
translators corrupt; which none are so young, none
so illiterate, none in so remote a place, but they
may come to be reached, and rightly informed by
it." In a dedicatory address to Charles the
Second, he pleads for toleration to the new sect
in the following emphatic terms :—" Thou hast
tasted of prosperity and adversity; thou knowest
what it is to be banished thy native country, to
be overruled as well as to rule, and sit upon the
throne; and being oppressed, thou hast reason to
know how hateful the oppressor is to God and man.
If, after all these warnings and advertisements,
thou dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy
heart, but forget him who remembered thee in thy
distress, and give up thyself to lust and vanity,
surely great will be thy condemnation." The
Apology was reprinted at Amsterdam, and translated
into the German, Dutch, French, and Spanish
languages. It received many answers, as it was not
conceived difficult to overturn its strange and
unusual theories. Barclay’s name as the apostle of
the Quakers was now extensively known, and
accompanied by the celebrated William Penn and
George Fox he travelled into England, Holland, and
Germany, disseminating the principles of the
Society of Friends, and was everywhere received
with great respect. About the end of 1677 he
addressed an Epistle and ‘Friendly advice’ on
public affairs to the ministers of the different
states of Europe then assembled at Nimeguen. At
this period a severe persecution raged against the
Quakers, and in that year Barclay, his father, and
many others of the Society of Friends, were
imprisoned at Aberdeen, at the instigation of
Archbishop Sharp, with whom he remonstrated by an
excellent letter on the occasion. By the
interposition of Elizabeth, the princess palatine
of the Rhine, who respected the Quakers, and
corresponded with both Penn and Barclay, he was
soon liberated; and he even acquired the favour of
the court.
In 1679, Charles the Second, who, it is
probable, considered him a harmless enthusiast,
granted him a charter under the great seal
erecting his lands of Urie into a free barony; and
in 1682, the proprietors of East Jersey, in North
America, appointed him governor of that province,
bestowing upon him 5,000 acres of land above his
proprietary share; but he never went out, having
the power to nominate a deputy. The last of his
productions, was a long letter in Latin, addressed
to a person of quality in Holland, ‘On the
Possibility and Necessity of an Inward and
Immediate Revelation,’ written in 1676, but not
published till 1686. From that year till his
death, excepting on one or two occasions, he may
be said to have lived in retirement at Urie, where
he died, August 3, 1690, in the forty-second year
of his age. His death was occasioned by a violent
fever which attacked him immediately after his
return from a religious visit to some parts of
Scotland.
Barclay possessed great natural abilities,
which were much improved by the superior classical
education he had received; these, joined to a
strong understanding, with a high degree of
enthusiasm, and much activity and energy,
admirably fitted him for the extraordinary career
which he pursued. He had been several times in
prison; but this did not damp his ardour, or
hinder him from vindicating his opinions, and
making proselytes on all occasions that offered.
In his moral character he was free from every
reproach, and his temper was so well regulated
that he was never seen in anger. Besides the works
above-named, he wrote, while imprisoned in
Aberdeen, a treatise ‘On Universal Love.’ He had
married, in February 1670, Christian Mollison, the
daughter of a merchant in Aberdeen, by whom he had
three sons and four daughters, all of whom
survived him for fifty years. His second son, Mr.
David Barclay, a mercer in Cheapside, successively
entertained the three first Georges, kings of
England, when they visited the city on Lord
Mayor’s day. From this gentleman are descended the
Barclays of Bury Hill in Surrey.
Barclay himself had a high opinion of James
the Second of England, who, on his accession, had
granted toleration to the Quakers. In 1688,
shortly before that infatuated monarch’s
dethronement, being at court one day, he was
standing with his Majesty at a window, when the
king observed, that "the wind was then fair for
the prince of Orange to come over." Barclay
replied, "It was hard that no expedient could be
found to satisfy the people." On which the king
said, "He would do any thing becoming a gentleman,
except parting with liberty of conscience, which
he never would do whilst he lived." That liberty
of conscience which he claimed for himself, he
unrighteously, as well as unwisely, denied to
others. An account of the life and writings of
Barclay, the Apologist, was published in 1802, in
12mo, by Joseph Gurney Bevan, one of the society
of Friends.
The following is a list of Robert Barclay’s
works:
Truth cleared of Calumnies, wherein a book,
entitled, A Dialogue between a Quaker and a Stable
Christian, (printed at Aberdeen, and, upon good
ground, judged to be writ by William Mitchel, a
preacher near by it, or at least that he had a
chief hand in it,) is examined, and the
disingenuity of the Author, in his representing
the Quakers, is discovered; here is also their
case truly stated, cleared, demonstrated, and the
Objections of their opposers answered according to
truth, scripture, and right reason; to which are
subjoined, Queries to the Inhabitants of Aberdeen,
which might also be of use to such as are of the
same mind with them elsewhere in the world. Aberd.
1670
William Mitchell unmasked, or the Staggering
instability of the pretended Stable Christian
discovered; his omissions observed, and weakness
unvailed, &c. 1671.
Seasonable warning and serious exhortation to, and
expostulation with, the inhabitants of Aberdeen,
concerning this present dispensation and day of
God’s living visitation towards them. 1672.
A Catechism and Confession of Faith, approved of,
and agreed to by the general assembly of the
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, Christ himself
chief speaker in and among them, which containeth
a true and faithful account of the principles and
doctrines which are most surely believed by the
churches of Christ in Great Britain and Ireland,
who are reproachfully called by the name of
Quakers, yet are found in the one faith with the
primitive church and saints, &c. 1673.
The Anarchy of the Ranters and other Libertines,
&c. 1674.
Theses Theologicae. Lond. 1675, 8vo.
Theologiae vere Christianae Apologia. Amst. 1676,
4to. Lond. 1729, 8vo.
An Apology for the true Christian Divinity, as the
same is held forth and preached by the people
called, in scorn, Quakers; being a full
Explanation and Vindication of their Principles
and Doctrines, by many Arguments deduced from
Scripture and right reason, and the testimonies of
famous Authors, both ancient and modern, with a
full Answer to the strongest Objections usually
made against them; presented to the King; written
and published, in Latin, for the information of
Strangers, by Robert Barclay; and now put into our
own Language, for the benefit of his Countrymen.
Lond. 1676, 1678, 1701, 8vo., 1736, 8vo. Birm. by
Baskerville, 1765, 4to Printed in Latin. Amst.
1676, 4to. Translated into Spanish, by Ant. de
Alvarado, 1710, 8vo.
Treatise on Universal Love. 1677.
Apology for the true Christian Divinity
Vindicated. Loud. 1679, 4to.
Vindication of his Anarchy of the Ranters. 1679.
The Possibility and Necessity of the Inward and
Immediate Revelation of the Spirit of God, towards
the foundation and ground of true Faith, proved in
a Letter written in Latin to a person of Quality
in Holland, and now also put into English. 1686.
A true and Faithful Account of the most material
Passages of a Dispute between some Students of
Divinity (so called), of the University of
Aberdeen, and the People called Quakers, held in
Aberdeen, in Scotland, in Alexander Harper his
close, (or yard), before some hundred of
Witnesses, upon the 14th day of the second month,
called April, 1675, there being John Lesley,
Alexander Sherreff, and Paul Gellie, Master of
Arts, opponents; and defendants, upon the Quakers’
part, Robert Barclay and George Keith: Preses for
moderating the meeting, chosen by them, Andrew
Thomson, Advocate; and by the Quakers, Alexander
Skein, sometime a Magistrate of the City:
published for preventing misreports, by Alexander
Skein, John Skein Alexander Harper, Thomas Merser,
and John Cowie. To which is added, Robert
Barclay’s Offer to the Preachers of Aberdeen,
renewed and reinforced.
Quakerism Confirmed; being an answer to a pamphlet
by the Aberdeen Students, entitled Quakerism
Canvassed, written in conjunction with George
Keith. Aberdeen. 1676.
An Epistle of Love and Friendly Advice to the
Ambassadors of the several Princes of Europe met
at Nimeguen, to consult the peace of Christendom
so far as they are concerned. Written in Latin,
but published also in English for the benefit of
his countrymen. 1677.
Works. Lond. 1692, fol.
BARCLAY, WILLIAM,
a learned civilian, descended from the family of
Barclay of Collairney, in Fife, was born in
Aberdeenshire in 1546. He was related to the earl
of Huntly, Ogilvy of Findlater, Lesley of
Balquhain, and other persons of distinction. He
was educated in the university of Aberdeen, and in
his youth he frequented the court at Holyrood. His
prospects of preferment in Scotland being blighted
with the dethronement of Mary queen of Scots, and
his adherence to the Romish faith, following the
example of many other Scottish youth at that
period, he went, in 1573, to France, and resolved
to devote himself to the study of jurisprudence.
Repairing to the university of Bourges, he
attended the lectures of Cujacitis, Donellus, and
Contius, three celebrated professors of law. He
took the degree of doctor of laws in that
university. The duke of Lorraine had recently
founded the university of Font-aMousson, and
Barclay, on the recommendation of his uncle Edmund
Hay, the Jesuit, its first rector, was appointed
in 1578 the first professor of civil law in that
institution. The duke also made him dean of the
law faculty, counsellor of state, and master of
requests. In 1581 Barclay married Anne de
Malleville, a lady of Lorraine, by whom he had one
son, John (the subject of the next article), whom
the Jesuits endeavoured to seduce into their
society; but this being opposed by his father,
they influenced the duke against him, and in 1603,
he resigned his chair and quitted Lorraine.
Barclay’s first and largest work, written in
Latin, as all his works were, was a treatise on
regal power, in which he zealously contends for
the divine right of kings. It was printed in the
year 1600, with a dedication to the French king,
Henry the Fourth. The first two books are directed
against the famous dialogue of his countryman
Buchanan; the third and fourth against the
‘Vindiciae contra Tyrannos,’ written by Hubert
Languet under the assumed name of Stephanus Junius
Brutus; and the last two against a treatise of
Jean Boucher, a doctor of the Sorbonne, who
rendered himself notorious for his seditious
audacity during the unhappy ascendant of the
League. This volume, says Dr. Irving, ought to
contain a curious portrait of the author, which,
however, is very seldom to be found. On each side
of it were displayed the blazonings of eight
different families, with which Barclay is supposed
to have been connected. Proceeding to London, he
was graciously received by James the Sixth, who is
said to have offered him a place in the council
with a pension, on condition of his renouncing the
Romish religion, which he declined to do, and in
1604 he returned to France. The professorship of
civil law at the university of Angers being
vacant, he was offered that chair, and having
accepted it on an engagement for five years, by a
decree of the university, of date 7th February
1605, he was confirmed in the rank of dean or
first professor. In this university he taught with
high reputation. Anxious to support the dignity of
his office he carried his taste for external pomp
to an unusual extent. When he went to the
university — hall to lecture, he was dressed in "
a rich robe, lined with ermine," with a massy
chain of gold about his neck, having his son on
his right hand, preceded by one servant, and
followed by two others bearing his train! His
elaborate commentary on the titles of the
Pandects, ‘De Rebus creditis,’ and ‘De Jurejurando,’
appeared in 1605, dedicated to King James. Towards
the close of the same year he died at Angers,
before he had completed the age of sixty. A
treatise on the power of the pope, which he left
in manuscript, was published by his son, four
years after his decease. In this work, which
excited a strong sensation at the time of its
appearance, he proves that the pope has no
authority over sovereigns in temporal matters.
(Irving’s Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. i.)
The following is a list of William Barclay’s
works:
De Regno et Regali Potestate, adversus Buchananum,
Brutum, Boucherium, et reliquos Mounarchomachos,
libri sex. Parisiis 1600, 4to. Hanov. 1612, 8vo.
Comm. in Titulos Pandectarum de Rebus Creditis et
de Jurejurando. Par. 1605, 8vo.
De Potestate Papae, quatenus in Reges et Principes
secu— lares Jus et Imperium habeat. Liber
posthumus. Francf.
1609. Hanoviae, 1611, 8vo. Franc. 1613, 1621. The
same in English. Lond. 1611, 4to. Item de Regno et
Regali Potestate, adversus Buchananum, Brutum et
reliquos
Monarchomachos; libri vi. Hanov. 1617, 12mo.
BARCLAY, JOHN,
author of Argenis, son of the preceding, by Anne
de Malleville, his wife, was born at Pont-a-Mousson,
January 28, 1582; and although not a native of
Scotland, is usually included in Scottish
Biographies. He was educated in the College of the
Jesuits in his native town, and made so rapid a
progress in his studies that at the age of
nineteen he published Annotations on the Thebais
of Statius. The early indications of genius which
he displayed induced the Jesuits to solicit him to
enter into their order. His rejection of their
offers, in which he was countenanced by his
father, was the cause of their quitting Lorraine
in 1603. He accompanied his father to London, and
dedicated to James the Sixth the first part of his
‘ Euphormionis Lusini Satyricon,’ a Latin romance
of a half-political, half-satirical nature,
printed at London the same year, which is
particularly severe upon the Jesuits. He went with
his father to Angers, and in the beginning of 1604
he sent his ‘Kalendae Januariae,’ as a poetical
offering to King James. He returned to London in
1605, in the hope of obtaining some preferment at
court; but after a farther residence of twelve
months, being disappointed, he removed to Paris,
where he married Louise, daughter of Michael
Debonnaire, "Tresorier des vieilles bandes."
During his residence at Paris he published there
the second part of his ‘Satyricon,’ dedicated to
the earl of Salisbury, and at Amsterdam a brief
narrative of the Gunpowder plot, in Latin. In 1606
he fixed his abode in London. In 1609 he published
his father’s able work, ‘De Potestate Papae,’ to
which he prefixed a preface of nine pages, which
concluded with an intimation of his purpose to
defend his father’s memory against any
attack. Cardinal Bellarmin having published a
treatise against it, he issued in 1612 a large
quarto volume in answer, entitled ‘Pietas,’ being
in defence of his father’s work. In 1610 he
published at London an apology for his ‘Satyricon,’
which had excited so many censures that he found
it necessary to attempt some explanations. In 1614
appeared his ‘Icon Animarum,’ forming the fourth
part of his ‘Satyricon.’ The object of this work
is to give a delineation of the genius and manners
of the different nations of Europe, with remarks
on the various tempers of men, and he has not
forgotten to extol the genius, and character of
the people of Scotland, the land of his fathers.
About the end of 1615, Barclay quitted
London, with his family, and proceeded to Paris,
but having been invited to Rome by Pope Paul the
Fifth, he there fixed his residence in the
beginning of 1616. With the view of recommending
himself to the heads of the church, he published
in 1617, his next work, ‘Paraenesis,’ or an
exhortation to Sectarians. He received much
civility at Rome, and in particular was kindly
treated by Cardinal Bellarmin.
It was at Rome that he wrote his celebrated
Latin romance, entitled ‘Argenis,’ and while the
printing of the first edition was going on at
Paris, the author died at Rome, of the stone,
August 21, 1621, aged 39. His Argenis was
published at Paris soon after his death. It is a
political allegory, containing allusions to the
state of Europe at the time, and especially France
during the civil wars of the seventeenth century.
The style has received the commendations of the
greatest scholars, and the work has been
translated into the English, French, German,
Italian, Spanish, and even into the Polish,
Swedish, Icelandic, and other languages. The first
English version was published by Sir Robert Le
Grys and Thomas May, Esq., London, 1628, 4to.
Another by Kingsmill Long, Esq., appeared at
London in 1636. A third, under the title of ‘The
Phoenix, or the History of Polyarchus and Argenis,’
by Clara Reeves, authoress of the ‘Old English
Baron,’ appeared in 1772, in 4 volumes 12mo, being
that lady’s first work. Argenis was a special
favourite with Cardinal de Richelieu and with
Liebnitz. Cowper styles it "the best romance that
ever was written." In the notes to Marmion Sir
Walter Scott has quoted a singular story of
romantic chivalry from the Satyricon of Barclay.
The following is a woodcut of John Barclay,
from a portrait prefixed to a French edition of
his ‘Argenis,’ of date 1625:
The disposition of Barclay was of a melancholy
cast, his mornings were uninterruptedly devoted to
study, and his afternoons were occupied in
cultivating a small garden. He was afflicted with
that passion for tulips which at that time
overspread Europe, and which is known under the
name of the Tulipo-mania. He "had it to
that excess," says Lord Hailes, who wrote a sketch
of his life, "that he placed two mastiffs as
sentinels in his garden; and rather than abandon
his favourite flowers, chose to continue his
residence in an ill-aired and unwholesome
habitation." Besides the works above mentioned,
Barclay left an unpublished History of the
Conquest of Jerusalem by the Franks, and some
fragments of a General History of Europe. He had
four children in all, a son and two daughters born
in London, and a son born in Rome. His elder son
is said to have obtained a rich benefice from Pope
Urban the Eighth. One of his sons, like his
father, was a writer of Latin verses, and in 1652
he printed an elegy at Paris. Barclay’s wife, from
excess of affection, sometimes annoyed him with
her jealousy. There was something romantic in her
feelings regarding him. After his death she
erected a monument, with his bust in marble, at
the church of St. Lorenzo, on the road to Tivoli;
but on learning that Cardinal Barberini had there
put up a similar monument in honour of his
preceptor, she said, "My husband was a man of
family, and famous in the literary world; I will
not suffer him to remain on a level with a base
and obscure pedagogue !" and indignantly caused
her husband’s bust to be removed. (Irving’s
Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. i.)
The following is a list of John Barclay’s works:
Notae in Statii Thebaidem. Mussiponti, 1601, 8vo.
Series Patefacti Divinitus Paricidli, contra
Maximum Regem regnumque Brittaniae cogitati et
unstructl. 1606.
Apologia pro se. Par. 1610, 12mo.
Pietas, sive Publicae pro regibus ac principibus,
et privatae pro Gui. Barclaio parente Vundiciae,
adversus Bellarminum. Paris, 1612, 4to.
Icon Animorum, quae est quarta Pars Satyrici.
Loud. 1614, 8vo. 1625, l2mo. cum NotisA. Buchneri.
Dresd. 1680, Svo. Satyricon cum clave. Leyd. 1623,
12mo. In Partibns v. cum clave. Amst. 1629, 12mo.
Oxon. 1634, l2mo. Amst. 1658, 12mo. idem, cum
Notis, in quatuer partes priores et sexta parte
auctum cui titulus; alithophilus castigatus. Lugd.
Bat. 1674, 8vo.
Poematum libri duo. London, 1615, 4to. His Latin
poems are also inserted in the Delitiae Poetarum
Scotorum.
Pananesis ad Sectarios de vera Ecclesia Fide ac
Religione. Rome, 1617, 8vo. Col. 1625, 12mo.
Satyricon cum clave et couspiratio Anglicanae. Oxf.
1634, 12mo.
Argenis. Par. 1621, 8vo. In French, 1622, 8vo. In
English. Lond. 1625, 4to. In Latin. Lugd. Bat.
Elzev. 1627, 1050, 12mo. Amst. 1658, 12mo. By Sir
Robert le Grys and Tho. May. With cuts. 1628, 4to.
Oxf. 1634, 8vo. In English, by K. Long. Lond.
1636, 4to. Amst. Elzev. 1655, 12mo. New English
Translation, entit. The Phoenix; or the History of
Polyarchus and Argenis. Translated from the Latin
by a Lady. 1772, 4 vols. l2mo. La suite et
continuation de l’Argenis en ix. livres; sc.
Argenidis pars altera. Par. 1625, 8vo. Idem,
Latine. Franc. 1626, 8vo.
Argenis et Satyricon, cum clave et Alithophili
veritatis Lacrymae. Lugd. Bat. 1627, 12mo. Elzev.
1630, 2 vols. Eadem, cum notis et continuatione,
Th. Bugnatii. Lugd. Bat. 1664, 2 vols. 8vo. Camb.
1673, 8vo. Cum figuris. Amst. 1703.
BARCLAY, WILLIAM, M.D.,
often confounded with the eminent civilian of the
same name, to whom he was related, was the brother
of Sir Patrick Barclay of Tolly, and was born
about 1570. He studied at the university of
Louvain, under the celebrated scholar, Justus
Lipsius, to whom he addressed several letters,
which have been printed. Lipsius had such a high
opinion of him that he is recorded to have said,
that if" he were dying, he knew no person on earth
he would leave his pen to but the doctor." (Callirhoe,
or the Nymph of Aberdene, edition Aberdeen,
1670.) Barclay describes himself as A.M. and M.D.,
but where he took those degrees we are not
informed. Having been appointed a professor in the
university of Paris, he taught humanity there for
several years, and acquired considerable
reputation by his talents and learning. He
afterwards returned to Scotland, where he appears
for a time to have followed the medical
profession, but soon went back to France, and
resumed his former occupation at Nantes in
Bretagne. Dr. Irving says that it may be inferred
from Dempster’s brief notice that Barclay’s reason
for again leaving his native country was that his
situation was rendered uncomfortable in
consequence of his adherence to popery.
(Irving’s Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. i.
p. 231.) According to Dempster, at the time of his
writing, Barclay was residing in Scotland, and
pursuing the practice of physic. He is conjectured
to have died about 1630. His principal tract,
called ‘Nepenthes, or the Vertves of Tabacco,’ was
published at Edinburgh, in 1614, in 8vo. It is now
exceedingly rare, and has been reprinted in the
first volume of the Miscellany of the Spalding
Club from the copy in the Advocates’ Library.
Added to this treatise are six little poems
addressed to some of his friends and kinsmen, all
in praise of tobacco. He also wrote ‘Callirhoe,
commonly called the well of Spa, or the Nymph of
Aberdene resuscitated;’ Apobaturum, or last
farewell to Aberdeen, of which no copy is now
known to exist; some Latin poems in the ‘Delitiae
Poetarum Scotorum,’ besides a Commentary on the
Life of Agricola by Tacitus, and other Latin
works.
The following is a list of his works, from Dr.
Irving’s ‘Lives of Scottish Writers,’ vol. i. p.
232:
Oratio pro Eloquentia. Ad v. cl. Ludovicum
Servinum, Sacri Consistorii Regli Consiluarium, et
in amplissimo Senatu Parisiensi Regis Advocatum.
Paris, 1598, 8vo.
C. Cornelii Taciti Opera quae exstant, ad exemplar
quod J. Lipsius quintum recensuit. Seorsim excusi
commentarii ejusdem Lipsil, meiores plenioresque,
cum curia secundis, et auctariolo non ante adjecto.
Guil. Barclayus Praemetia quaedam ex Vita
Agricolae libavit. Adjecti sunt indices aliquanto
ditiores. Paris, 1599, 8vo.—Menage and Bayle have
ascribed these Praemetia to the civilian, and the
same error has been committed by other writers.
Nepenthes, or the Vertves of Tabacco. By William
Barclay, Mr. of Art, and Doctor of Physicke. Edinb.
1614, 8vo.—This tract is dedicated to the author’s
nephew, Patrick, the ADVANCE \d 5
son and heir of Sir Patrick Barclay of Tolly; and
the dedication is preceded by "A merie Epistle of
the Author to the Printer," who is no other than
"good Master Hart."
Callirhoe, commonly called the Well of Spa, or the
Nymph of Aberdene, resuscitat by William Barclay,
Mr. of Art, and Doctor of Physick. What Diseases
may be cured by drinking of the Well of Spa at
Aberdene, and what is the true use thereof. As it
was printed by Andro Hart Anno Domini 1615,
and now reprinted at Aberdene by John Forbes,
younger, Printer to the Town and Universitie,
Anno Domini M. DC. LXX., 8vo.
Guil. Barclayi, Amoenioruin Artiurn, et Medicinae
Doctoris, Judiciurn de Certamine G. Eglisemmii cum
G. Buchanano, pro Digaitate Paraphraseos Psalmi
ciiii. Non violandi Manes. Adjecta sunt,
Eglisemmii ipsurn Judicium, ut editum fuit Londini,
typis Eduardi Aldaei, an. Dorn. 1619; et, in
gratiam studiosae juventutis, ejusdern Psalmi
elegans Paraphrasis Thomae Rhaedi. Lond. 1620,
8vo.—Dr. Eglisham, like a fair as well as a bold
critic, exhibited his own verses in competition
with those of Buchanan, and had no reason to
congratulate himself on the issue.
Gull. Barclayii, M. D. Poemata. Delitiae
Poetarum Sco torum,, tom. i. p. 137.—These
poems only occupy four pages and a half.
BARCLAY, JOHN,
founder of a religious sect named Bereans, born in
1734, was the son of Mr. Ludovic Barclay, farmer,
parish of Muthill, Perth-shire. Being designed for
the church he was sent to St. Andrews, where he
took the degree of A.M. He attended the divinity
class in St. Mary’s College; and while there
espoused and advocated some of the peculiar
doctrines then broached by Dr. Archibald Campbell,
professor of church history in that university ;
the chief of which was, that the knowledge of the
existence of God is derived from revelation, and
not from nature. On the 27th September 1759 he
was, by the presbytery of Auchterarder, licensed
to preach the gospel; and was for some time
assistant to the Rev. Mr. Jobson, Errol. Having
imbibed some of the sentiments of Mr. Jolm Glas,
minister of Tealing, the founder of the Glasites,
he was obliged to quit Errol. In June 1763 he
became assistant to Mr. Anthony Dow, minister of
Fettercairn, where he remained for nine years, and
where he was very popular as a preacher. In 1766
he published part of a Paraphrase of the whole
Book of Psalms, which he had composed, accompanied
with ‘A Dissertation on the best means of
interpreting that portion of the Canon of
Scripture.’ From his peculiar views, the
presbytery of Fordoun, in consequence of this
publication, cited him to appear at their bar,
where he defended himself with ability and
success. He afterwards published a small work,
entitled ‘Rejoice Evermore, or Christ All in All;’
in which he repeated those doctrines which were
deemed heretical. In consequence of this, the
presbytery appointed one of their own body to read
publicly, in the church of Fettercairn, a warning
against the dangerous doctrines that he preached ;
but without injuring his popularity or usefulness.
In 1769 he published one of the largest of his
treatises, under the title of Without Faith,
Without God, or an appeal to God concerning his
own Existence.’ In summer 1769, he addressed a
letter on the ‘Eternal Generation of the Son of
God,’ to Messrs. Smith and Ferrier, two clergymen
of the Church of Scotland who had separated from
it and become Glassites. In 1771 he published a
Letter ‘ On the Assurance of Faith;’ and also a
‘Letter on Prayer,’ the latter addressed to an
Independent congregation in Scotland. On the death
of Mr. Dow in 1772, the presbytery of Fettercairn
prohibited Mr. Barclay from preaching in the kirk
of Fettercairn; and they refused him the usual
certificate of character on quitting their bounds.
Having in consequence left the Church of Scotland,
he went to Newcastle, and was ordained there Oct.
12, 1773. He afterwards proceeded to Edinburgh,
where a congregation holding his peculiar
sentiments had been formed, and he was their
pastor for about three years. Subsequently, in
order to disseminate his principles, he repaired
to London, where he preached for nearly two years.
He also preached at Bristol, and other places in
England. The name of Bereans was voluntarily
assumed by his followers, to distinguish them from
other Christian sects, and took its origin from
the Jews of Berea, mentioned in the Acts of the
Apostles, chap. xvii. verse II, as being "more
noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they
received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the Scriptures daily, whether these
things were so." At Edinburgh Mr. Barclay
published an edition of his works in three vols.
In 1783 he brought out a small work for the use of
the Berean churches, entitled ‘The Epistle to the
Hebrews Paraphrased,’ with a collection of Psalms
and Songs from his other works. He died of
apoplexy, on the 29th of July, 1798.—Scots
Magazine.
BARCLAY, JOHN, M.D.,
a distinguished anatomist, the nephew of John
Barclay the Berean, was born in 1760. He was a
native of Cairn in Perthshire, where his father
was a farmer. He first studied divinity at St.
Andrews, and was by the presbytery of Dunkeld
licensed as a preacher. In 1789 he repaired to
Edinburgh in the capacity of tutor to the family
of Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, baronet, and
abandoning the clerical profession began to study
medicine at the university of Edinburgh,
particularly turning his attention to anatomy,
both human and comparative. lie became assistant
to Mr. John Bell, and in 1796 took the degree of
M.D. He afterwards studied for some time under the
late Dr. Marshall of London, an eminent teacher of
anatomy in Thavies Inn. In November 1797 he began
his career as an anatomical lecturer in Edinburgh.
In 1803 he published a Nomenclature, with
the view of rendering the language of anatomy more
accurate and precise; but although this work
displayed much talent and learning, it was not
genes’— ally adopted. In the following year, the
Royal College of Surgeons passed a resolution
declaring that attendance on his lectures should
qualify for passing at Surgeon’s Hall, and in 1815
lie was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College
of Physicians, and a resident fellow the following
year. In 1808 lie published a ‘Treatise on the
Muscular Motions of the Human Body.’ In 1812
appeared his ‘Description of the Arteries of the
Human Body.’ His last publication was an ‘ Enquiry
into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning
Life and Organization.’ In consequence of the
declining state of his health, in 1825 he entered
into partnership with Dr. Robert Knox, at the time
Conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons. He
died at Edinburgh, August 21,- 1826. He had
married in 1811 Eleommora, daughter of his former
patron, Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, baronet,
by whom he had no issue. This lady afterwards
married Mr. Charles Oliphant, writer to the
signet. Dr. Barclay’s introductory lectures,
revised by himself before his death, containing a
valuable abridgment of the history of anatomy,
were published by Sir George Ballingall, M.D.,
after his decease. The article Physiology, in the
third edition of the Encyelopaedia Britannica, was
written by Dr. Barclay. It was principally on his
recommendation that the Highland Society of
Scotland established a veterinary school in
Edinburgh. His anatomical collection, now known as
the Barclayan Museum, was bequeathed to the Royal
College of Surgeons of that city, in which a bust
of him, by Joseph, has been placed.
Subjoined is a list of his works:
A New Anatomical Nomenclature, relating to the
terms which are expressive of Position and Aspect
in the Animal System. Edin. 1803, 8vo.
The Muscular Motion of the Human Body. Edinburgh,
1808, 8vo.
Description of the Arteries of the Human Body.
Edin. 1812, 12mo.
An Enquiry into the Opinions, ancient and modern,
concerning Life and Organization. Edinburgh, 1822,
8vo.
Introductory Lectures to a course of Anatomy, with
a Memoir of the Author, by George Ballingall, M.
D. Edinburgh, 1827, 8vo.
Entries for Barclay from
the Dictionary of National Biography
Barclays of Urie
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