Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/172

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Barclay
166
Barclay

prayer at the house of a friend, at which he had called on finding himself unwell whilst on his way to preach to his congregation. He was interred in the Calton old burying-ground, where a monument was erected to his memory.

[Foote's Essay appended to a Sermon, &c., Aberdeen, 1775; A Short Account of the Early Life of Mr. John Barclay, prefixed to various works; Thom's Preface to Without Faith, without God, &c., 1836; Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen, 1868; Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, pt. vi. p. 867; M'Clintock and Strong's Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, 8vo, New York, 1867–81.]

A. H. G.

BARCLAY, JOHN (1741–1823), one of the oldest and most distinguished officers who ever served in the marines, entered that corps in 1755 as a second lieutenant, and became first lieutenant in 1756. He served throughout the seven years' war, at first in the Mediterranean, then in the expedition to Belle Isle in 1760, and lastly on the coast of Africa; he was promoted captain in 1762. He served with distinction through the American war, particularly at the Red Bank and in the mud forts, and was in command of the marines on board the Augusta, when that frigate answered the fire of the forts, and was deserted on being herself set on fire in the Delaware river. For these services he was promoted major by brevet in 1777. He was one of the commanding officers of marines in Rodney's great action with De Grasse, and was after it promoted lieutenant-colonel by brevet in 1783. He saw no further active service at sea, but was for the next thirty years chiefly employed on the staff of the marines in England. He became major in the marines in 1791, and lieutenant-colonel in the marines, and colonel by brevet in 1794. In 1796 he became major-general, and in 1798 second colonel commandant in his corps. In this capacity he had much to do with the organisation of the marines, and effected many reforms in their uniform and drill. In 1803 he became lieutenant-general and colonel commandant of the marines, and in 1806 resident colonel commandant. He was now practically commander-in-chief of the whole corps under the admiralty, and the universal testimony borne to its good character testifies to the excellence of its organisation, and it must be remembered that not only in the mutinies of Spithead and the Nore, but in all the mutinous manifestations which occurred, the marines proved that they could be depended on to check mutiny among the sailors. In 1813 he became general, and in 1814 retired from the service after continuous employment for fifty-nine years. He went to live at Taunton, where he died in November 1823.

[For Barclay's services see the Royal Military Calendar, and occasional allusions in the common military and naval histories.]

H. M. S.

BARCLAY, JOHN (1758–1826), anatomist, was born in Perthshire 10 Dec. 1758, his father being a farmer, brother of John Barclay [q. v.], founder of the Berean sect in Edinburgh. Obtaining a bursary in St. Andrew's University, he studied for the church, and became a licensed minister; but entering the family of Mr. C. Campbell as a tutor, he devoted his leisure to natural history, afterwards concentrating his attention especially on human anatomy. In 1789 he passed as tutor into the family of Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, whose daughter Eleanora he long afterwards married, in 1811. The young Campbells, his pupils, entered Edinburgh University in 1789, and Barclay became an assistant to John Bell, the anatomist, and was also associated with his brother Charles, afterwards Sir Charles Bell. To Sir James Campbell Barclay owed the means of completing his medical course. He became M.D. Edin. in 1796, then went to London for a season's study under Dr. Marshall of Thavies Inn, an eminent anatomical teacher, but returned to Edinburgh and established himself as an anatomical lecturer in 1797. Thenceforward until 1825 he delivered two complete courses of human anatomy, a morning and an evening one, every winter session, and for several years before his death gave a summer course on comparative anatomy. His classes gradually grew in reputation; in 1804 he was formally recognised as a lecturer on anatomy and surgery by the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, and in 1806 he became a fellow of the Edinburgh College of Physicians. His style of lecturing was extremely clear, and illuminated by a thorough knowledge of the history of his subject. He contributed the article Physiology to the third edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ (1797), and in it showed good scientific perception, although the amount of knowledge then available for such an article appears extremely small to a modern reader. He developed his ideas of a nomenclature of human anatomy based on scientific principles, and ridiculed many absurdities, which, however, have for the most part persisted, in ‘A New Anatomical Nomenclature’ (1803). In 1808 he published a treatise on ‘The Muscular Motions of the Human Body,’ arranged according to regions and systems, and with many practical appli-