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Sir John Barrow

Place of Birth:	Ulverston in Furness
Date of Birth:	June the 19th 1764
Date of Death:	November the 23rd 1848
Interests:	exploring, mathematics, china, writing, traveling

Biography

Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet, was a statesman; He was born on 19th of June 1764 at Dragley Beck, Ulverston in Furness, Cumbria and was the son of a farmer. His last visit to his home town was in 1796 when he was aged 32. Sir John achieved many great things in his life time and held various government posts; he had one daughter and four sons and was a founder of the Royal Geographic Society.

At the ages of 13 he left Ulverston and started his life with the job of a superintending clerk at an iron foundry in Liverpool. When he was 16 joined a whaling expedition to Greenland and went to sea for the first time and then in his 20’s progressed to teach mathematics in a Greenwich private school. By the age of 28 in 1792 he set sail with Lord Macartney on the very first British embassy to China as Lord Macartney’s accountant and became fluent in the Chinese language.

Then in 1797 he accompanied Lord Macartney again as a private secretary on his mission to the Cape of Good Hope to sort out the government of the newly acquired African colony. While he was there he drew maps and wrote about his travels. Three years later in 1800 Sir John decided to settle down in South Africa, he got married to Anne Maria Truter and purchased a house in Cape Town.

Unfortunately the colony was surrendered and this disrupted his plans, he then decided to return to England in 1804. On his return he was appointed the position of Second Secretary of the Admiralty, a position which he maintained for forty years.

Sir John Barrow was a member of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, and in 1821 received the Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Edinburgh. Sir John Barrow was a huge promoter of any Arctic voyages, including the expeditions to Point Barrow in Alaska , which was after him in 1825.

In 1835 Sir Robert Peel conferred a baronetcy was on him. Sir John Barrow retired from his public life in 1845 to write books, he wrote an autobiography and a book about the history of artic voyages. Sir John died suddenly in London on November 23, 1848 aged 84, he is buried in Camden Town.

Two years after his death the Hoad Hill monument was built in his memory and honour, the Hoad hill monument is 100 foot high and overlooks his town of birth, Ulverston in Furness and is now a grade 2 listed building,

Further reading about sir John Barrow can be found at the wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Barrow%2C_1st_Baronet

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