Editing Daines Barrington

{{Short description|English lawyer, antiquary and naturalist}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox person
 | name        = Daines Barrington
 | image       = File:Stipple engraving of Daines Barrington.jpg
 | alt         =
 | caption     = Engraving from a 1770 painting
 | birth_name  =
 | birth_date  = 1727/28
 | birth_place =
 | death_date  = {{death-date|14 March 1800}}
 | death_place =
 | nationality = English
 | alma_mater  = [[The Queen's College, Oxford]]
 | known_for   = Correspondence with [[Gilbert White]]
 | occupation  = Lawyer
}}

'''Daines Barrington''', [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], [[Society of Antiquaries of London|FSA]] (1727/28{{snd}}14 March 1800) was an English lawyer, antiquary and naturalist. He was one of the correspondents to whom [[Gilbert White]] wrote extensively on natural history topics. Barrington served as a Vice President of the Royal Society and wrote on a range of topics related to the natural sciences including early ideas and scientific experimentation on the learning of songs by young birds. He designed a standard format for the collection of information about weather, the flowering of plants, the singing of birds and other annual changes that was also used by Gilbert White. He also wrote on child geniuses including [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], who at the age of nine had visited England.

==Early life and legal career==
Barrington was the third son of [[John Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington]].<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB |first=David Philip |last=Miller |title=Barrington, Daines (1727/8–1800) |orig-year=2004 |year=2008 |id=1529}}</ref> He [[Matriculation#United Kingdom|matriculated]] at [[The Queen's College, Oxford]], in 1745, but never graduated. In the same year he was admitted to the [[Inner Temple]], and was [[Call to the bar|called to the bar]] in 1750.{{citation needed|date= September 2023}}

He subsequently held various legal offices, including marshal of the [[Admiralty court|High Court of Admiralty]], 1751–3; a judge of [[Court of Great Sessions in Wales|Great Sessions]] for North Wales ([[Anglesey]], [[Caernarfonshire]] and [[Merionethshire]]) from 1757; [[Recorder (judge)|Recorder]] of [[Bristol]] and [[King's Counsel]] from 1764; and [[Puisne Justice of Chester|second justice of Chester]] from 1778. Though considered by some (including [[Jeremy Bentham]]) to be an indifferent judge, his ''Observations on the Statutes, chiefly the more ancient, from Magna Charta to 21st James I'' (1766), had a high reputation among historians and constitutional antiquaries,<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Barrington, Daines|volume=3|page=436}}</ref> and ran through five editions down to 1796. He resigned all his legal offices in 1785, retaining only that of [[Commissariat|Commissary General]] of the stores at [[Gibraltar]], which continued to provide him with a substantial income until his death.<ref name="ODNB" />

==Antiquarian and scientific writings==
[[File:Pit Mead Roman villa mosaic, illustration by Catherine Downes.jpg|thumb|Pit Mead Roman villa mosaic, illustrations by [[Catherine Downes]], engraved by [[James Basire]] and presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London by Barrington]]
[[File:Richard Westall (1765-1836) - Nelson and the Bear - BHC2907 - Royal Museums Greenwich.jpg|thumb|''[[Nelson and the Bear]]'' by [[Richard Westall]]. A young [[Horatio Nelson]] served on the [[1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole|1773 expedition]] to the [[Arctic]] supported by Barrington.]]
In 1773 Barrington published an edition of ''[[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]]'', with the [[Old English Orosius|Anglo-Saxon version]], and an English translation with original notes. His ''Tracts on the Probability of reaching the North Pole'' (1775) were written in consequence of the [[1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole|northern voyage of discovery]] undertaken by Captain [[Constantine John Phipps]], afterwards Lord Mulgrave (1744–1792).<ref name="EB1911"/>

Barrington's other writings are chiefly to be found in the publications of the [[Royal Society]] and the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]]: he was elected to both bodies in 1767, and afterwards became a vice-president of the latter. Many of these papers were collected by him in a quarto volume entitled ''Miscellanies on various Subjects'' (1781).{{citation needed|date= September 2023}}

His ''Account of a very remarkable young Musician'' describes the 1764 London visit of the nine-year-old [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and first appeared in ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]'' in 1770, later to be gathered in his ''Miscellanies'' with accounts of other [[child prodigy|prodigies]], namely, [[William Crotch]], [[Charles Wesley|Charles]] and [[Samuel Wesley (composer, born 1766)|Samuel Wesley]], and [[Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington]].  
<blockquote> Finding that he was in humour, and as it were inspired, I then desired him to compose a ''Song of Rage'', such as might be proper for the opera stage.
The boy again looked back with much archness, and began five or six lines of a jargon recitative proper to precede a ''Song of Anger''.
This lasted also about the same time with the ''Song of Love''; and in the middle of it, he had worked himself up to such a pitch, that he beat his harpsichord like a person possessed, rising sometimes in his chair.
…I must add [the fact that] I have been informed by two or three able musicians, when Bach the celebrated composer<ref group=note>Presumably 'the London Bach' [[Johann Christian Bach|Johann Christian]], (1735 – 1782)</ref> had begun a fugue and left off abruptly, that little Mozart hath taken it up, and worked it after a most masterly manner.
Witness as I was myself of most of these extraordinary facts, I must own that I could not help suspecting his father imposed with regard to the age of the boy, though he had not only a most childish appearance, but likewise had all the actions of that stage of life. For example, whilst he was playing to me, a favorite cat came in, upon which he immediately left his harpsichord, nor could we bring him back for a considerable time.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Barrington, Daines|title=Account of a very remarkable young Musician|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|volume=60|year=1770|pages=54–64|doi=10.1098/rstl.1770.0008|doi-access=free}}</ref></blockquote>

Other studies include ''Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds''<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1098/rstl.1773.0031 |title=Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds, by the Hon. Daines Barrington, Vice Pres. R. S. In a Letter to Mathew Maty, M. D. Sec. R. S |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |volume=63 |pages=249–291 |year=1773 |last1=Barrington |first1=D. |s2cid=186207885 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barrington |first=Daines |date=1773 |title=Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds, by the Hon. Daines Barrington, Vice Pres. R. S. In a Letter to Mathew Maty, M. D. Sec. R. S. |url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans03800619 |journal= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |series=Series I|volume=63 |pages=249–291 |bibcode=1773RSPT...63..249B |issn=0260-7085}}</ref> and an essay on the language of birds.<ref name="EB1911"/> Barrington attempted [[cross-fostering]] experiments on birds and noted that young linnets raised with foster parents could be induced to learn the songs of various lark species.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Barrington, D. |year=1773|title= Experiments and observations on the singing of birds|journal= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume= 63|pages= 249–291|url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans03800619|doi=10.1098/rstl.1773.0031|s2cid=186207885}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1006/anbe.2003.2051|title=Fifty years of bird song research: A case study in animal behaviour|journal=Animal Behaviour| volume=65|issue=4|pages=633–639|year=2003|last1=Slater|first1=P.J.B.|s2cid=53157104|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bz1v7pf}}</ref> He however dismissed the idea of long-distance migration in birds, and supported the ancient view that swallows went to sleep underwater during winter.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Barrington, D. |year=1772|title= An Essay on the Periodical Appearing and Disappearing of Certain Birds, at Different Times of the Year. In a Letter from the Honourable Daines Barrington, Vice-Pres. RS to William Watson, MDFRS.|journal= Philosophical Transactions|volume= 62|pages= 265–326|doi=10.1098/rstl.1772.0022|doi-access= free}}</ref>

Letters to Barrington from the [[parson-naturalist]] [[Gilbert White]] form a large part of White's 1789 book ''[[The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne]]''; Barrington's half of the correspondence is not included. Barrington established the format of the ''Naturalist's Journal'' for "keeping a daily register of observations on the weather, plants, birds, insects, &c" based on [[Benjamin Stillingfleet]] for collating information from across England. This format printed by Gilbert White's brother [[Benjamin White (publisher)|Benjamin]] was used from around 1769 to serve the study of the natural history of Selbourne.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Hon. Daines Barrington, F.R.S.. Annotations on Two Journals Compiled by Gilbert White| author=Foster, Paul G. M. | journal= Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London | volume=41| issue=1| year=1985| pages=77–93 | jstor=531496 | doi=10.1098/rsnr.1986.0004| s2cid=143620884 }}</ref> Very few of his log books are extant but Barrington has been considered as a pioneer of the study of [[phenology]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/qj.94706226304|title=The history of British phenology|journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society|volume=62|issue=263|pages=19–24|year=2007|last1=Clark|first1=J. Edmund|bibcode=1936QJRMS..62...19C}}</ref>

Barrington met the [[Cornish language|Cornish]] speaker [[Dolly Pentreath]] and published a report of the encounter. This report is the main source for the claim that Dolly was the [[last speaker of the Cornish language]]. A year after Dolly Pentreath died in 1777, Barrington received a letter, written in Cornish and accompanied by an English translation, from a fisherman in Mousehole named William Bodinar stating that he knew of five people who could speak Cornish in that village alone. Barrington also speaks of a John Nancarrow from [[Marazion]] who was a native speaker and survived into the 1790s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ellis|first= P. Berresford |year=1971| title=The Story of the Cornish Language|place= Penryn|publisher=Tor Mark Press}}</ref>

The plant genus ''[[Barringtonia]]'' is named in his honour.<ref>{{cite book|title=Verba nominalia; or, Words derived from proper names|author= Charnock, Richard Stephen| year=1866| publisher=Trübner & co.|place=London|url=https://archive.org/stream/verbanominaliaor00charrich#page/16/mode/2up/| page=16}}</ref>

==Death and burial==
Barrington never married, and lived for most of his life in [[barristers' chambers|chambers]] in [[King's Bench Walk, London|King's Bench Walk]] in the [[Inner Temple]], London. He was afflicted by paralysis from his legs upward and died after being bedridden for a long time on 14 March 1800; his remains were interred in the vault of the [[Temple Church]].<ref name="ODNB" /><ref>{{cite journal|title=Account of the Hon. Daines Barrington|pages= 350–351|journal=The Edinburgh Magazine or Literary Miscellany| volume=14| year=1799|author=Anon.}}</ref>

== Notable works ==
*{{Cite book
|last=Orosius
|author-link=Paulus Orosius
|year=c. 417
|editor-last=Alfred the Great
|editor-link=Alfred the Great
|editor2-last=Barrington
|editor2-first=Daines
|editor2-link=Daines Barrington
|title=The Anglo-Saxon Version, from the Historian Orosius
|publisher=Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols and sold by S. Baker
|publication-date=1773
|location=London
|url=https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonversi00barrgoog
|access-date=17 August 2008
}}
*{{Cite book
|last=Barrington
|first=Daines
|author-link=Daines Barrington
|year=1775
|title=The Possibility of Approaching the North Pole Asserted
|publisher=James Eastburn & Co
|publication-date=1818
|location=New York
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVIQAAAAYAAJ
|access-date=17 August 2008
}}
== Notes ==
{{reflist |group=note}}
==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Cite DNB|wstitle=Barrington, Daines|last=Macdonell|first=George Paul|volume=3}}

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{{s-court}}
{{succession box | before=[[Sir William Robinson, 4th Baronet|William Robinson]] | title=[[Deputy Master of the Great Wardrobe]] | years=1754–1756 | after=[[Sir William Robinson, 4th Baronet|Sir William Robinson, Bt]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrington, Daines}}
[[Category:1720s births]]
[[Category:1800 deaths]]
[[Category:English antiquarians]]
[[Category:18th-century antiquarians]]
[[Category:English naturalists]]
[[Category:English legal writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Members of the Inner Temple]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:Younger sons of viscounts]]