Author: Barnes, William
Biography:
BARNES, William (1801-86: ODNB)
Barnes was born on 22 Feb. 1801 at Rushay Farm, Bagber Common, near Sturminster Newton in Dorset, and baptised on 29 Mar. 1801. He was the sixth of seven children born to John Barnes and his wife Grace Scott; they were farmers but in reduced circumstances. He was educated in the village school before attending a boys’ school in Sturminster Newton. Barnes became a solicitor’s clerk first in Sturminster Newton and then in Dorchester but, when the opportunity arose, he moved to Mere, Wiltshire, to work as a schoolmaster in 1823. He married Julia Miles in Nailsea, Somerset, on 9 July 1827 and she helped with the school; they had seven children. Barnes was a polymath who was determined to improve himself and he began writing on a wide range of subjects for periodicals; later he would also lecture. In 1835 he established a school in Dorchester and on 2 Mar. 1838 he was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge, as a “ten-year man” to work part-time on earning a BD (1851). He was ordained deacon in 1847 and priest in 1848 and served as perpetual curate at Whitcombe, Dorset, 1847-52 and 1862. The 1851 Census shows the family living in Dorchester with six children, Julia’s mother, three servants, two tutors, and one pupil. Julia died of cancer on 21 June 1852. He became rector at Winterborne Came in 1862 and held that position until his death. Beginning with Poetry in the Dorset Dialect (1844), Barnes’s poetry in dialect was well-received and he became increasingly interested in philology; in particular he wanted to de-Latinise English and his poetry shows the influence of Anglo-Saxon verse. In 1861 he was awarded a civil list pension of £70 a year. Barnes died at the rectory on 7 Oct. 1886 and he was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter’s at Winterborne Came on 11 Oct. 1886. Thomas Hardy, who lived nearby and had known Barnes for many years, attended the funeral and wrote “The Last Signal” to commemorate his friend. (ODNB 14 Sept. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 14 Sept. 2023; ACAD) SR