BERNARD

See also:

• BARTON, BENJAMIN SMITH (1766-1815)
• BERNARD BARTON (1784–1849)
• BARTON, CLARA (1821– )
• BARTON, ELIZABETH (c. 1506–1534)

BARTON (1784–1849)  , English poet, was born at Carlisle on the 31st of January 1784 . His parents were Quakers, and he was commonly known as the Quaker poet . After some experience of business, he became, in 1809, clerk to Messrs Alexander's bank at Woodbridge, Suffolk, and retained this post till his death . His first volume of verse—Metrical Effusions—was published in 1812 . It brought him into correspondence with Southey, and shortly afterwards, through the medium of a set of complimentary verses, he made the acquaintance of Hogg . From this time onwards to 1828 Barton published various volumes of verse . After 1828 hid work appeared but rarely in print, but his Household Verses published in 1845 secured him, on the recommendation of Sir Robert Peel, a Civil List pension of £loo a year, f 1200 having already been raised for him by some members of the Society of Friends . Barton is chiefly remembered for his friendship with Charles Lamb, which arose, curiously enough, out of a remonstrance addressed by him to the author of Essays of Elia on the freedom with which the Quakers had been handled in that volume . When Barton contemplated resigning his bank clerkship and supporting himself entirely by literature, Lamb strongly dissuaded him . " Keep to your bank," he wrote, " and the bank will keep you." Barton died at Woodbridge on 19th February 1849 . His daughter Lucy married Edward FitzGerald . See Poems and Letters of Bernard Barton, selected by Lucy Barton, with a biographical notice by Edward FitzGerald (1849) .