Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback

John Barrow

Priest, descended from a family of stanch Catholic yeomen (1735-1811)

Click to enlarge

Barrow, JOHN, priest, descended from a family of stanch Catholic yeomen, b. May 13, 1735, at Westbyin-the-Fylde, Lancashire; d. February 12, 1811, at Claughton, Lancashire. His uncle, Father Edward Barrow, S.J., had been serving the mission at Westby Hall in 1717 when he was outlawed as a popish priest and his goods forfeited. John Barrow, after a course of seven years at the English College in Rome, was impressed at Portsmouth and served five years in the navy. Deserting at Dunkirk, he was acquitted by the court-martial through pretending successfully to understand no language but Italian. In 1761, after escorting two young women from London to the Convent of the Poor Clares at Gravelines, where his sister was a nun, he resumed his studies at Douai, and was ordained there June 27, 1766. After a short stay in London at the house in Red Lion Square occupied by the parents of Bishop Milner, he set out on horseback for Claughton in Lancashire. At this mission, which had been formerly attached to the Hall, the seat of the ancient family of Brockholes, he remained from the time of his arrival, in July, 1766, until his death. He was buried at the adjoining mission of New House.

Father Barrow was a man of notable courage, will, and industry. He was a master of French and Italian, wrote elegant Latin and forceful English. “He may sometimes have shown but scant courtesy to the wishes or commands of his own bishop, but he insisted that everybody else should be obedient and deferential to ecclesiastical authority” (Gillow). He enlarged the parish church of Claughton, in 1794, improved the roads as township overseer, made wise reinvestments of the fund for the secular clergy, and negotiated with Sir Edward Smythe for the acquirement by exchange of the land for Ushaw College. Though his name is on the list of Douai writers, no description of his writings is recorded. It is likely that he contributed to the Catholic Committee controversy. Gillow’s quotations from unpublished letters would imply that Barrow was no gentle opponent. In a letter preserved at Claughton the Cardinal Secretary of State praises warmly Father Barrow’s Catholic loyalty and his zeal for the cause of the Holy See.

J. V. CROWNE


Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free
Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donatewww.catholic.com/support-us