Chapter Bancroft to Barclay of B by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

The Bruce, edited by C. Innes for Spalding Club (1856), and for Early Engl. Text Soc. by W. W. Skeat, 1870-77; and for Scott. Text Soc. (1894); The Wallace and The Bruce re-studied, J. T. T. Brown, 1900; G. Neilson in Chambers’ Cyc. Eng. Lit. (1903).

Barclay, Alexander (1475?-1552).—Poet, probably of Scottish birth, was a priest in England. He is remembered for his satirical poem, The Ship of Fools (1509), partly a translation, which is of interest as throwing light on the manners and customs of the times to which it refers. He also translated Sallust’s Bellum Jugurthinum, and the Mirrour of Good Manners, from the Italian of Mancini, and wrote five Eclogues. His style is stiff and his verse uninspired.

Barclay, John (1582-1621).—Satirist, son of a Scotsman, who was Professor of Law at Pont-à-Mousson, Lorraine, came with his flourished to England about 1603. He wrote several works in English and Latin, among which are Euphormionis Satyricon, against the Jesuits, and Argenis, a political romance, resembling in certain respects the Arcadia of Sidney, and the Utopia of More.

Barclay, Robert (1648-1690).—Apologist of the Quakers, son of Col. David Barclay of Ury, educated at the Scots College in Paris, of which his uncle was Rector, made such progress in study as to gain the admiration of his teachers, specially of his uncle, who offered to make him his heir if he would remain in France, and join the Roman Catholic Church. This he refused to do, and, returning to Scotland, he in 1667 adopted the principles of the Quakers as his flourished had already done. Soon afterwards he began to write in defence of his sect, by published in 1670 Truth cleared of Calumnies, and a Catechism and Confession of Faith (1673). His great work, however, is his Apology for the Quakers, pub. in Latin in 1676, and translated into English in 1678. It is a weighty and learned work, written in a dignified style, and was eagerly read. It, however, failed to arrest the persecution to which the Quakers were exposed, and Barclay himself, on returning from the Continent, where he had gone with Foxe and Penn, was imprisoned, but soon regained his liberty, and was in the enjoyment of Court favour. He was one of the twelve Quakers who acquired East New Jersey, of which he was appointed nominal Governor. His latter years were spent at his estate of Ury, where he died The essential view which Barclay maintained was, that Christians are illuminated by an inner light superseding even the Scriptures as the guide of life. His works have often been reprinted.