Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/189

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BARBOUR
BARCO CENTENERA
163

(Albany, 1864; 2d ed., 1884); and "Digest of New York Reports" (2 vols., 1877). He also edited, with notes. "Collyer on Partnership" (Springfield, Mass., 1838); "Chitty on Bills" (1839); and Cowen's "Civil Jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace" (2 vols., Albany, 1844).


BARBOUR, John Strode, b. in Culpeper county, Va., 8 Aug., 1790; d. there, 12 Jan., 1855. He was the son of a revolutionary officer, and was at William and Mary college, afterward studying law with Gov. James Barbour. In the war of 1812 he was aide to Gen. Madison. He afterward became a member of the state legislature, and, as chairman of the committee on courts and justice, received the unusual honor of a vote of thanks. He was elected to congress in 1823, and was reelected four times, serving until 3 March, 1833. Here, as in the legislature, he was known as an able debater. Although a strong states-rights man, he spoke in congress in defence of McDuffie's proposition to break up the system of voting for president by states and in its place to establish the method of voting for chief magistrate by districts. He was an active member of the Virginia constitutional convention.—His son, John Strode, senator, b. in Culpeper countv, Va., 29 Dec, 1820 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 14 May, 1892. He was educated at the University of Virginia, adopted the profession of law, and was active in state politics. He was elected to congress as a democrat in 1880, and served three terms. In 1883 he became chairman of the democratic organization in Virginia, succeeded in preventing the reelection of Gen. William Mahone, and secured the defeat of the readjuster party. He continued chairman of the Virginia democratic committee in 1884-'8, and was active in the canvass for the election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency. In 1888 he was chosen U. S. senator as a democrat. He was active in railroad matters, and was president of the Virginia midland railroad company.


BARCA, Francisco, Spanish statesman, b. in Puerto Real, near Cádiz, in 1831; d. by his own hand in New York, 29 July, 1883. He had filled several public offices when elected deputy to the cortés, in 1858. He took high rank as a parliamentary orator, and in 1868 was appointed director-general of administration under Posada Herrera's government. When Alfonso XII. was proclaimed king, Barca took the office of sub-secretary of the interior, which he resigned a year and a half later on account of his sympathies with the liberal opposition. He accepted, in 1881, the office of Spanish minister at Washington. His published works include a “Diccionario de Política y Administración.”


BÁRCENA, Alfonso de, Spanish missionary, b. in Córdoba, Spain, in 1666; d. in 1723. He was sent as a Jesuit missionary to Peru, where his zeal and success won for him the title of “The Apostle of Peru.” He left several valuable works, among them a “Lexicon,” a “Doctrina Cristiana,” and a “Libro de Oraciones” (prayer-book) in five dialects, for the use of the South American Indians.


BÁRCENA, Mariano de la (barth'-en-a), Mexican engineer, b. in Guadalajara, Mexico, 26 July, 1853. From early youth he has been devoted to study and research in natural sciences. Many of his works have been translated into German and French. Bárcena is a member of several European and American scientific associations, and is director of the meteorological observatory of Mexico. He has discovered and classified many Mexican plants, and published an excellent book on the natural products of the state of Jalisco, and a treatise on geology. Bárcena represented his nation at the New Orleans exhibition in 1885.


BARCIA, Andrés González de, Spanish historian, d. in 1743. He published “General History of Florida” (Madrid, 1723), and “First Historians of the West Indies,” issued in sections, and published collectively after his death (3 vols., folio, 1749). He also edited works by Herrera, de la Vega, and Torquemada.


BARCLAY, Robert, governor of East New Jersey, b. in Gordonstown, Morayshire, Scotland, 23 Dec.,'l648; d. at Ury, 3 Oct., 1690. He was one of the twenty-four original proprietaries of East New Jersey, and in 1682 was elected governor of the province for life, with permission to rule by deputy. He never visited America. He was the first member of the society of Friends to advocate their religious views with force and ability. It was mainly through his influence that large numbers of Scottish emigrants, many of them Quakers, settled in the province. The titles of his works and the controversies concerning them occupy several pages in the catalogue of the British museum. "Barclay of Ury," celebrated in Whittier's poem, was Robert Barclay's father. See H. Mill's "Life and Writings of Robert Barclay" (1812) ; also his life by W. Armistead (1850); also "East Jersey under the Proprietary Government, by George Scott of Pitlochie" (1685; reprint, Newark, N. J., 1875).


BARCLAY, Robert H., British naval officer, b. in Scotland; d. in Edinburgh, 8 May, 1837. He served under Nelson at Trafalgar, where he lost an arm, and in 1813 had charge of fitting out the British armament on Lake Erie, a task which he fulfilled with energy. But the fleet of which he took command was poorly manned, mostly with Canadian boatmen and soldiers, and to this fact was probably due, in part, his defeat by the American fleet under Perry, in the famous battle of 10 Sept., 1813. In number of men and guns Barclay had the superiority, and though Perry's guns were heavier, Barclay's were of longer range. In the battle Barclay was dangerously wounded, and finally surrendered with his whole force. It was Barclay who gave the order to train all the available guns on the small boat in which Perry was crossing from the disabled "Lawrence" to the "Niagara." Barclay was afterward tried by a court-martial for surrendering, but was honorably acquitted.


BARCLAY, Thomas, adjutant-general of Nova Scotia, b. in New York, 12 Oct.. 1753; d. there in April, 1830. He was a son of Henry Barclay, D. D., rector of Trinity church. New York, was a graduate of King's college, and studied law under John Jay. At the beginning of the American revolution he joined the British army under Sir William Howe, with the rank of captain in the loyal American regiment, and became a major in 1777. He continued in active service until the peace, when he fled with his family to Nova Scotia. In that province he was for some time speaker of the house of assembly, and adjutant-general of militia. Successively he was a commissioner under Jay's treaty, consul-general for the northern and eastern states, and commissary for the care and exchange of prisoners. At the close of the war of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, he was appointed commissioner under the 4th and 5th articles of the treaty of Ghent.


BARCO CENTENERA, Martin del, Spanish poet, b. in Extremadura in 1535 ; d. in Lisbon in 1603. He took an active part in the conquest of South America from 1572 to 1596. the history of which he wrote in an epic entitled "Argentina y Conquista del Rio de la Plata, Tucuman y otros sucesos del Peru" (Lisbon, 1602). He also left another work called "Desenganos del Mundo."