, esq. the descendant of an ancient and respectable family at Lyndon
, esq. the descendant of an ancient
and respectable family at Lyndon in Rutlandshire, was the
son of Samuel Barker, esq. of Lyndon, by a daughter of
the celebrated Whiston, who often acknowledges the assistance he received from his son-in-law in his ecclesiastical
researches. Mr. Samuel Barker was long employed in preparing a Hebrew grammar, which he probably did not live
to finish, but in 1761 was published “Poesis vetus He^
braica restitutus. Accedunt quasdam de carmine Anacre^
ontis. De accentibus Graecis. De Scriptura vetere lonica,
De literis consonantibus et vocalibus, et de pronuntiatione
>inguae Hebraicoe,
” 4to. He was then dead. His son, the
subject of the present article, was the author of several
tracts on religious and philosophical subjects among the
former were, “The duty, circumstance, and benefits of
Baptism, determined by evidence,
” The
Messiah, being the prophecies concerning him methodized,
with their accomplishment,
” The nature and
circumstances of the Demoniacs in the Gospel,
” An account of a Meteor seen in Rutland,
” On the return of the Comet expected in 1757 or
1755, ibid. 1759. 3.
” On the mutations of the Stars,“ibid. 1761. 4.
” Account of a remarkable Halo,“ib. 1762,
5.
” Observations on the quantity of rain fallen at Lyndon
for several years, with observations for determining the
latitude of Stamford,“ib. 1771. He published also separately,
” Account of the discoveries respecting Comets,"
1757, 4to. This contains a table of the Parabola, much
valued by competent judges, and reprinted by sir Henry
Englefield, in his excellent treatise on the same subject.
Mr. Barker, by a course of uninterrupted abstemiousness,
particularly from animal food, which he was under the necessity of leaving off in his infancy, prolonged his life and
faculties to an unusual period, dying at Lyndon, Dec. 29th,
1809, in his eighty-eighth year. It ought to have been noticed, that he drew up the history of the parish of Lyndon, one of the few parts given to the public of a new
edition of Wright’s history and antiquities of Rutland.