John Barton, a Merchant, Who Was Already an Annual Subscriber to the British and Foreign School Society

Chichester Lancastrian Boys School. Graham Dewsall. One of the distinguished gentlemen of Chichester who considered that a school should be set up for the education of poor and deprived boys within the locality and its environs, was Mr. John Barton, a merchant, who was already an annual subscriber to the British and Foreign School Society. *1 He was appointed Secretary of the new school, with Mr. John Marsh appointed President. *2 John was born on 4 June 1789 (after the death of his father), being the youngest son of John Barton the Elder and Elizabeth Horne. He was half-brother to Maria Hack and Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet. He was principally known as an early economist, with his work being discussed by Karl Marx in Theories of Surplus Value. He moved to Chichester, in Sussex and married firstly, Ann Woodrouffe Smith in Wandsworth, London, on 29 August 1811, followed secondly at Smeeth Hill House, near Ashford in Kent, on 23 July 1828, Fanny Rickman. He was the father of Rev. John Barton of Cambridge (1836-1908). He died on the 10 March 1852, aged 62. *3 As secretary of the Chichester School Committee, he reported on 7th April 1812 that he had had an interview with Mr. William Allen, one of the Trustees of the Borough Road Institution, who was engaged to provide a person to organise a girls’ school. The Free School for Girls, also based on the plan of Mr. Lancaster, was opened in May 1812. On 20 March 1852, his obituary in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle stated:- "The late John Barton, of Chichester, whose death was noticed in our last journal, though not a public character, was a gentleman too much inclined to assist in 1 mental progress to be permitted to pass from the present state with merely a common obituary notice. Mr. Barton was half-brother to Mrs. Maria Hack, the well-known selector of Grecian and English stories, for the instruction of the young, and, with his brother-in-law, he was for a short time connected in business; but having relinquished this, and having married a lady with a considerable property, he devoted his attention to literary and scientific pursuits. The subject of Political Economy, then recently brought before the public by Malthus and Bentham, greatly occupied his thoughts, and he is generally considered as having very much coincided in the speculations of the Author on Population. He enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Sanden, whose literary attainments, and professional skill as a physician, are well known, and in conjunction with him and a Mr. Marsh and a Mr. Woods, he established the Savings Bank in Chichester, and sedulously attended to its management till laid aside by what, from his age, may be called premature debility. When Joseph Lancaster unfolded his plan for extensive and cheap pauper instruction, Mr. Barton entered warmly into it; and though the Chichester Lancastrian School owes much of its excellence to its first master, Mr. Green, and for many years to the indefatigable attention of its present master, Mr. Paul, the children were often benefited by the instructive addresses and lectures with which they were favoured by Mr. Barton. In the same way he frequently edified the members of the Mechanics’ Institution, of which he was Treasurer, and in which he took a very considerable interest. So far as the all-engrossing subject of Free Trade was concerned, Mr. B. rather inclined, it is thought, to Conservative principles, as one of the League lecturers was induced, when at Chichester, in consequence of something published by Mr. Barton, to challenge him to a public argument, which, however, the subject of this memoir declined to accept. In politics Mr. Barton was decidedly Liberal, and in company advocated Reform in Parliament; but whether from the influence of early Whig associations, or from constitutional timidity, or from a fear that the human mind when set on rolling might roll too far, and in its flight from experienced evils might ‘flee to evils which we know not of’, he took no very active part in promoting it, and disappointed some of the more determined and energetic reformers in Chichester and its environs. Mr. B. had travelled abroad, but he had breathed too habitually the apathetic air of the Cathedral city, the influence of which is very mentally depressing, to have been a bold asserter of the rights of man. Considering, however, that Mr. B’s sphere of action was a place affording very little excitement or support to those who would ‘devise liberal things’, he was a very active and honourable member of society, and his memory, when any event brings it before our mind, merits the most respectful feeling. Mr. Barton’s connections were, by birth, of the Society of Friends, but latterly he belonged to the Established Church. On theological topics he seldom entered, and it may be doubted whether he was much acquainted with those biblical criticisms on which the several Christian sects found their distinctive tenets; but, free from bigotry, he was ready to join the worthy of any denomination in any plans which he deemed calculated to raise the moral tone and to increase the comfort of the public body."*4 2 Following Barton’s death on 10 March 1852, a meeting of the School Committee held on 1 April 1852, resolved unanimously, and agreed to adopt the following resolution:- "That this Committee desire to record the sense they entertain of the great loss sustained by the British Schools of this City, by the decease of the late John Barton Esq., the enlightened and assiduous supporter of these Institutions from their first establishment to the period of his lamented departure. While they cannot but regard that departure as a merciful translation from a state of much trial and infirmity to one of rest and peace, they must feel and lament at the same time the loss of one so devoted to the cause of education, and so competent from his peculiar qualifications to promote its interests. The Committee trust that the valuable example bequeathed to them by their lamented friend will not be lost on those who now desire to offer this tribute to his memory. It is desirable that some testimonial to the memory of Mr. Barton should be perpetuated in the School. And it is now proposed that a subscription be opened for the purpose of enabling the Committee to give annually to the most deserving boy, a book or books to be called the ‘Barton Testimonial’*5." This is the contextual history of the Lancastrian School, and the narrative of some of its pupils who fought in the Great War follows. Sources 1. http://bartonhistory.wikispaces.com/John+Barton+Senior+(1789-1852) 2. John Marsh (1752-1828). Gentleman composer, diarist and writer, lived in Chichester. 3. http://bartonhistory.wikispaces.com/John+Barton+Senior+(1789-1852) 4. http://bartonhistory.wikispaces.com/%2ABarton+1980s 5. Barton Testimonial. The first recipient of the Barton Testimonial is recorded as being George Matthews in 1852, whereby a bible was presented to the recipient. This tradition has continued annually to the present day, with the girls also receiving the same accolade. See The Barton Testimonial. Sources: West Sussex County Council Records Office, Chichester. Barton History. John Barton Senior 1789-1852. Chapter 10. Obituaries. http://bartonhistory.wikispaces.com/John+Barton+Senior+(1789-1852) 3 .

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