BARTON, Sir ROBERT (1770–1853), general, was son of William Barton, Esq., of the Grove, co. Tipperary, and was born in 1770. Being in the south of France in 1790, he, like other Englishmen there, enrolled himself as a volunteer in the national guard, and received the thanks of the National Convention for his conduct at Moissac during the disorders at Montauban. Having returned to England he obtained a commission in the 11th light dragoons, with which he served under the Duke of York in 1795, and again in Holland in 1799, where he received the thanks of Sir Ralph Abercromby for his services on 8 Sept. at Oude Carspel. He became lieutenant-colonel 2nd life guards in 1805, and commanded the regiment at the time of the Burdett riots in 1810, when the life guards acquired so much unpopularity. He also commanded the two squadrons of the regiment subsequently sent to the Peninsula, where he served for a time. He was promoted to general's rank in 1819, and was knighted in 1837. He died in London on 17 March 1853.
[Gent. Mag. 1853; Army Lists.]
BARTON, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1681–2), royalist divine, received his education at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and took both degrees in arts in that university before 20 Nov. 1629, when he was presented by Charles I to the rectory of Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire, then void by simony (Bruce, Cat. of Domestic State Papers of Charles I, iv. 101; Rymer, Fœdera, xix. 139; but cf. Notes and Queries, 4th ser. i. 66). He subsequently, and apparently in 1631, became rector of Westmeston, Sussex, of which benefice he was, for his loyalty, deprived in 1642. During the civil war he was chaplain to Prince Rupert, and on 25 Aug. 1660 he was restored to his rectory of Westmeston. On 21 March 1663 he was created D.D. at Oxford by virtue of a letter from the Earl of Clarendon, chancellor of the university. He was buried at Westmeston 25 March 1682–3.
Barton is the author of: 1. ‘Ἀντιτείχισμα, or a Counter-scarfe prepared Anno 1642 for the eviction of those Zealots that in their Works defie all externall bowing at the Name of Jesus. Or the Exaltation of his Person and Name, by God and us, in Ten Tracts, against Jewes, Turkes, Pagans, Heretickes, Schismatickes, &c., that oppose both, or either,’ London, 1643, 4to. 2. ‘Ἀπόδεισις τοῦ Ἀντιτείχισματος. Or a Tryall of the Covnter-scarfe, Made 1642. In answer to a Scandalous Pamphlet intituled A Treatise against superstitious Jesu-worship written by Mascall Giles, Vicar of Ditcheling, in Sussex. Wherein are discovered his Sophismes; and the Holy Mother, our Church, is cleered of all the slanders which hee hath laid on her,’ London, 1643, 4to. 3. ‘Λόγος ἀγώνιος, or a Sermon of the Christian Race, preached before his Maiesty at Christ Church in Oxford, 9 May 1643’ [Oxford], 1643, 8vo. 4. ‘King David's Church-Prayer; set forth in a Sermon preached at S. Margaret Pattens, alias Rood-Church, London,’ on 24 June 1649. Printed in 4to in that year.
[Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 211; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 276; Sion College Library, N. 11. 6, N. 11. 6*, O. 4. 39; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi. 470, vii. 46, 104, 4th ser. i. 66; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
BARTON, THOMAS (1730?–1780), divine, was a native of Ireland, but descended from an English family which settled there in the reign of Charles I. After graduating at Dublin University he emigrated to America, and in 1751 opened a school at Norriston, Pennsylvania, being then about twenty-one years of age. He was for some time tutor at the academy (now university) at Philadelphia. In 1753 Barton married Esther Rittenhouse, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer, and sister of Dr. David Rittenhouse, the distinguished mathematician and astronomer, whose close friendship he enjoyed until his death. In 1754 Barton went to England, where he received episcopal orders. He returned to America as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, with which he remained connected until 1759. He accompanied, as chaplain, the expedition to Fort du Quesne (now Pittsburg), which ended in the defeat and death of its leader, General Braddock. On leaving York county, Pennsylvania, he settled at Lancaster as rector of St. James's. Here he remained nearly twenty years, dividing his time between the duties of his office and the pursuit of natural history. At last his adherence to the royalist party compelled him to quit his post, and he removed to New York, where he died, 25 May 1780, aged 50. His wife seems long to have survived him. Benjamin Smith Barton, the American physician and naturalist, was one of his children.
[Barton's Memoirs of David Rittenhouse, Philadelphia, 1813, pp. 100, 112, 287; Thacher's American Medical Biography, 1828, p. 139 note.]
BARTON, WILLIAM (1598?–1678), hymnologist, must have been born ‘about 1598’ from his recorded age at death (eighty). His verse-translation of the Psalms was first
