detected and arrested, but as Prince Orlov declined to prosecute, was discharged, though subsequently he was sentenced to three years’ hard labour for pocket-picking at Drury Lane theatre. On his release he was again caught at his old practices and sentenced to five years’ hard labour, but influence secured his release on the condition that he left England. He accordingly went for a short time to Dublin, and then returned to London, where he was once more detected pocket-picking, and, in 1790, sentenced to seven years’ transportation. On the voyage out to Botany Bay a conspiracy was hatched by the convicts on board to seize the ship. Barrington disclosed the plot to the captain, and the latter, on reaching New South Wales, reported him favourably to the authorities, with the result that in 1792 Barrington obtained a warrant of emancipation (the first issued), becoming subsequently superintendent of convicts and later high constable of Paramatta. In 1796 a theatre was opened at Sydney, the principal actors being convicts, and Barrington wrote the prologue to the first production. This prologue has obtained a wide publicity. It begins:—
“From distant climes, o’er widespread seas, we come, |
Barrington died at a ripe old age at Paramatta, but the exact date is not on record. He was the author of A Voyage to Botany Bay (London, 1801); The History of New South Wales (London, 1802); The History of New Holland (London, 1808).
BARRINGTON, JOHN SHUTE, 1st Viscount (1678–1734), English lawyer and theologian, was the son of Benjamin Shute, merchant, and was born at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, in 1678. He received part of his education at the university of Utrecht; and, after returning to England in 1698, studied law in the Inner Temple. In 1701 he published several pamphlets in favour of the civil rights of Protestant dissenters, to which class he belonged. On the recommendation of Lord Somers he was employed to induce the Presbyterians in Scotland to favour the union of the two kingdoms, and in 1708 he was rewarded for this service by being appointed to the office of commissioner of the customs. From this, however, he was removed on the change of administration in 1711; but his fortune had, in the meantime, been improved by the bequest of two considerable estates,—one of them left him by Francis Barrington of Tofts, whose name he assumed by act of parliament, the other by John Wildman of Becket. Barrington now stood at the head of the dissenters. On the accession of George I. he was returned to parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed; and in 1720 the king raised him to the Irish peerage, with the title of Viscount Barrington of Ardglass. But having unfortunately engaged in the Harburg lottery, one of the bubble speculations of the time, he was expelled from the House of Commons in 1723,—a punishment which was considered much too severe, and was thought to be due to personal malice of Walpole. In 1725 he published his principal work, entitled Miscellanea Sacra or a New Method of considering so much of the History of the Apostles as is contained in Scripture, 2 vols. 8vo,—afterwards reprinted with additions and corrections, in 3 vols. 8vo, 1770, by his son Shute. In the same year he published An Essay on the Several Dispensations of God to Mankind. He died on the 14th of December 1734.
BARRINGTON, SAMUEL (1729–1800), British admiral, was the fourth son of the 1st Viscount Barrington. He entered the navy at an early age and in 1747 had worked his way to a post-captaincy. He was in continuous employment during the peace of 1748–1756, and on the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War served with Hawke in the Basque roads in command of the “Achilles” (60). In 1759 the “Achilles” captured a powerful French privateer, after two hours’ fighting. In the Havre-de-Grace expedition of the same year Barrington’s ship carried the flag of Rear-Admiral Rodney, and in 1760 sailed with John Byron to destroy the Louisburg fortifications. At the peace in 1763 Barrington had been almost continuously afloat for twenty-two years. He was next appointed in 1768 to the frigate “Venus” as governor to the duke of Cumberland, who remained with him in all ranks from midshipman to rear-admiral. In 1778 the duke’s flag-captain became rear-admiral and went to the West Indies, while in conjunction with the army he took the island of Santa Lucia from the French, and repulsed the attempt of the Comte d’Estaing to retake it. Superseded after a time by Byron, he remained as that officer’s second-in-command and was present at Grenada and St. Kitts (6th and 22nd of July 1779). On his return home, he was offered, but refused, the command of the Channel fleet. His last active service was the relief of Gibraltar in October 1782. As admiral he flew his flag for a short time in 1790, but was not employed in the French revolutionary wars. He died in 1800.
See Ralfe, Naval Biographies, i. 120; Charnock, Biographia Navalis, vi. 10.
BARRINGTON, SHUTE (1734–1826), youngest son of the 1st Viscount Barrington, was educated at Eton and Oxford, and after holding some minor dignities was made bishop of Llandaff in 1769. In 1782 he was translated to Salisbury and in 1791 to Durham. He was a vigorous Protestant, though willing to grant Roman Catholics “every degree of toleration short of political power and establishment.” He published several volumes of sermons and tracts, and wrote the political life of his brother, Viscount Barrington.
BARRINGTON, WILLIAM WILDMAN SHUTE, 2nd Viscount (1717–1793), eldest son of the 1st Viscount Barrington, was born on the 15th of January 1717. Succeeding to the title in 1734, he spent some time in travel, and in March 1740 was returned to parliament as member for Berwick-upon-Tweed. Having taken his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1745, he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of the admiralty in 1746, and was one of the “managers” of the impeachment of Simon, Lord Lovat. In 1754 he became member of parliament for Plymouth, in 1755 was made a privy councillor and secretary at war, and in 1761 was transferred to the office of chancellor of the exchequer. In 1762 he became treasurer of the navy, and in 1765 returned to his former position of secretary at war. He retained this office until December 1778, and during four months in 1782 was joint postmaster-general. He married in 1740 Mary, daughter of Mr Henry Lovell, but left no children. He died at Becket on the 1st of February 1793, and was buried in Shrivenham church.
See Shute Barrington, Political Life of William Wildman, Viscount Barrington (London, 1814).
BARRISTER, in England and Ireland the term applied to the highest class of lawyers who have exclusive audience in all the superior courts, the word being derived from the “bar” (q.v.) in the law courts. Every barrister in England must be a member of one of the four ancient societies called Inns of Court, viz. Lincoln’s Inn, the Inner and Middle Temples, and Gray’s Inn, and in Ireland, of the King’s Inns. The existence of the English societies as schools can be traced back to the 13th century, and their rise is attributed to the clause in Magna Carta, by which the Common Pleas were fixed at Westminster instead of following the king’s court, and the professors of law were consequently brought together in London. Associations of lawyers acquired houses of their own in which students were educated in the common law, and the degrees of barrister (corresponding to apprentice or bachelor) and sergeant (corresponding to doctor) were conferred. These schools of law are now represented by the Inns of Court (q.v.).
Students are admitted as members of the Inns of Court, on paying certain fees and on passing a general (elementary) examination or (alternatively) producing evidence of having passed a public examination at a university; their subsequent call to the bar depends on their keeping twelve terms (of which there are four in each year), and passing certain further examinations (see English Law ad fin.). A term is “kept” by dining six times (three for a student whose name is on the books of a university) in hall. This is a relic of the older system in which examinations were not included, the only requisite being a certificate from a barrister that the student had read for twelve months in his chambers. Dining in hall then applied a certain social test, which has now become unmeaning. The profession of barrister is open to almost every one; but no person connected
