Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/192

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Barham
186
Barham

a monthly magazine of divinity and universal literature,’ Lond. (1845), 8vo. No portion of the projected magazine was ever published. 9. ‘An Odd Medley of Literary Curiosities, original and selected,’ Lond. (1845) 8vo. This volume contains a memoir of James Pierrepont Greaves. 10. ‘A Key to Alism and the highest initiations, Sacred and Secular. With Miscellaneous Pieces, original and select,’ Lond. 1847, 8vo. 11. ‘The Bible revised. A carefully corrected translation of the Old and New Testament,’ Lond. 1848, 8vo. In three parts, containing the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and the Book of Micah.’ 12. ‘The New Bristol Guide, a poem,’ Bristol, 1850, 8vo. 13. ‘The Pleasures of Piety, a poem,’ London, 1850, 18mo. 14. ‘A Life of Edward Colston of Bristol.’ 15. ‘Improved Monotessaron, a complete authentic Gospel Life of Christ, combining the words of the four Gospels in a revised version and an orderly chronological arrangement,’ Lond. 1862, 12mo. 16. ‘Lokman's Arabic Fables, literally translated into English (word for word),’ Bath, 1869, 12mo. 17. ‘A Rhymed Harmony of the Gospels. By F. Barham and Isaac Pitman. Printed both in the phonetic and the customary spelling,’ Lond. 1870, 8vo. 18. ‘The Writings of Solomon, comprising the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Psalms lxxii. cxxvii. Translated. Printed both in phonetic and in the customary spelling,’ Lond. 1870, 16mo. 19. ‘A Revised Version of the Prophecies of Hosea and Micah,’ Lond. 1870, 8vo. 20. ‘The Book of Job, newly translated from the original. Printed both in the phonetic and the customary spelling,’ Lond. 1871, 8vo. 21. ‘An Elucidated Translation of St. John's Epistles, from the Greek and Syriac, with a devotional commentary,’ Lond. 1871, 8vo. 22. ‘The Book of Psalms, translated from the Hebrew and the Syriac. By F. Barham and Edward Hare,’ Lond. 1871, 8vo.

Barham left behind him 116 lb. weight of manuscript, much of it in a small handwriting. It consists of treatises on Christianity, missions, church government, temperance, poems in blank verse, rhymed poetry, and a few dramas. From this mass of papers Mr. Isaac Pitman selected about seven pounds, and printed them in his ‘Memorial of Francis Barham,’ Lond. 1873, 8vo. This volume, which is mostly in the phonetic character, contains reprints of the ‘Memoir of James Greaves,’ ‘Lokman's Fables,’ the ‘Life of Reuchlin,’ and the ‘Rhymed Harmony of the Gospels.’

[Pitman's Memorial of Francis Barham; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornubiensis, i. 11, iii. 1048; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 36, 120, 5th ser. ix. 268, 374; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]

T. C.

BARHAM, HENRY, F.R.S. (1670?–1726), a writer on natural history, was born about 1670, and was descended from the Barhams of Barham Court in Kent. In books of reference he has hitherto been confounded with his son, Henry Barham, M.D. The main events of his life are recorded by himself in one of his letters to Sir Hans Sloane (Sloane MS. 4036, pp. 357–358). His father, a physician, intended to give him a university education, but died before he could carry out his wishes. As the mother married soon afterwards, the boy, then about fourteen years of age, was left to his own resources, and became apprentice to a surgeon. This situation he left to become surgeon's mate in the Vanguard, from which he was promoted to be master surgeon in another man-of-war. Tiring of the monotony of his life he went to Spain, thence to Madras, and thence to Jamaica. As in 1720 (Add. MS. 22639, f. 19) he refers to his son as having practised physic and surgery in Jamaica for the last twenty years, he himself had probably settled in the island twenty years before the end of the century. According to his own account he obtained a lucrative practice, and was appointed surgeon-major of the military forces in the island. About 1716 he came to England and settled at Chelsea, devoting his chief attention to the rearing of the silkworm and the manufacture of silk, on which subject he published a treatise in 1719. His name appears in 1717 on the list of members of the Royal Society, and he states also that shortly after he came to England he was made free of the Company of Surgeons, but his hopes of obtaining the diploma of M.D. do not appear to have been fulfilled, for the only change that occurs in his designation on the roll of the Royal Society is from ‘Mr.’ to ‘Esquire.’ In his application, in 1720, for the situation of mineral superintendent to a company formed to prosecute silver mining in Jamaica (Add. MS. 22639, ff. 18–20), he stated that his business prospects were so good that he could not sacrifice them for less than 500l. a year. He received the situation on his own terms; but the enterprise, which had been undertaken chiefly through his representations, proved a complete failure, and though a year's salary was due to him it was never paid. He continued, however, to reside in Jamaica till his death at Spanish Town in May 1726 (Sloane MS. 4036, p. 377). A memorial tablet is in the cathedral at Spanish Town (Roby's Monuments of Spanish Town, p. 38).

Barham states that after he came to Jamaica