Barton, BERNARD

Barton, BERNARD, the Quaker poet, was born at Carlisle in 1784. In 1809 he became clerk to a bank at Woodbridge, a post which he held till within two days of his death, 19th February 1849. His Metrical Effusions (1812) brought him into correspondence with Southey; whilst Poems by an Amateur (1818), Poems (1820), and several more volumes of verse, increased his reputation, and gained him the friendship of Byron and Lamb. His devotional poems have an echo of George Herbert, and some of his lyrics are graceful; but he is on the whole less a poet than a versifier, easy and pleasant withal. Lamb's advice to him was sound, 'Keep to your bank, and your bank will keep you;' and by Lamb's advice it was that he accepted the sum of £1200, raised by Quaker friends in 1824. See his Poems and Letters (1849), selected by his daughter, with memoir by E. Fitzgerald, and Lucas's Bernard Barton and his Friends (1894).