ing at his trade, that of a hatter. On hearing of the battle of Bunker Hill, he shouldered a musket and joined the army. In 1777 he conceived the exploit that made him famous, that of capturing the British general, Robert Prescott, who had made himself offensive to the Rhode Island whigs by his overbearing conduct. On the night of 10 July, with thirty-eight men in four whale-boats, Barton crossed Narragansett bay, passed unobserved three British frigates, and, landing about half way between Newport and Bristol ferry, went to the farm-house, represented in the engraving, where Prescott had his headquarters. The guards were surprised, the door of Prescott's room was broken in by a negro in the party, who used his head as a battering-ram, and the general was hurried away half dressed and taken to Warwick point, and afterward to Washington's headquarters in New Jersey. For this exploit congress gave Barton a sword, and he was brevetted colonel. He was very proud of his deed, and it is said that at the retreat of the British from Warren, in 1778, he called after one of the enemy's officers, challenging him to single combat, and announcing himself as “the man who took Prescott.” During this same retreat Barton was wounded and disabled for some time. He was afterward a member of the state convention that adopted the federal constitution. Some time later Barton's right to a piece of land in Vermont was contested, and, as he refused to pay a judgment, he was detained in Danville, Vt., for fourteen years. Lafayette, on his visit in 1825, paid the claim without Barton's knowledge, and set him free. It is said by some writers that the land in question was granted to Barton by congress; but Mrs. Catharine R. Williams, in her life of Barton (“Biographies of Revolutionary Heroes,” Providence, 1839), says that he purchased it.
BARTRAM, John, botanist, b. near Darby, Pa.,
23 March, 1699; d. in Kingsessing, Pa., 22 Sept.,
1777. He acquired a knowledge of medicine and
surgery, became interested in the study of plants,
and was finally cited by Linnaeus as the greatest
natural botanist in the world. In 1728 he
founded the first botanical garden in the United
States, at Kingsessing, on the banks of the Schuylkill,
not far from Philadelphia. His enthusiasm
for collecting led him to make numerous excursions
through the then little explored regions of
North America. In 1743 he visited the shores
of Lake Ontario, and wrote “Observations on the
Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions,
Animals, and other Matters Worthy of Notice,
made by Mr. John Bartram in his Travels from
Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake
Ontario, in Canada” (London, 1751). During the
winter of 1765-'6 he visited East Florida, and an
account of this trip was published with his journal
(London, 1766). He made extensive collections,
and sent specimens of new and curious American
plants to foreign botanists, who in return supplied
him with books and apparatus. He secured the
appointment of American botanist to George III.,
and was a member of several foreign scientific societies,
as well as a contributor of papers to the
“Philosophical Transactions,” London. See “Memoirs of
John Bartram,” by William Bartram. See “Memorials
of John Bartram and Humphrey Marshall,”
by William Darlington (Philadelphia, 1849). — His
son, William, botanist, b. in Kingsessing, Pa., 9
Feb., 1739; d. there, 22 July, 1823. He removed to
North Carolina and there became engaged in business.
This he abandoned before reaching the age of
thirty, and, accompanying his father to Florida,
settled on the banks of St. John's river, where for several
years he cultivated indigo. In 1771 he returned
to the botanical gardens, and subsequently devoted
his attention almost entirely to botany. From 1773
till 1778 he travelled extensively through the southern
states, in order to examine the natural products
of the country. An account of his experiences,
under the title of “Travels through North and South
Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the
Cherokee Country, the extensive Territories of the
Muscogules or Creek Confederacy, and the Country
of the Choctaws,” was published (Philadelphia, 1791,
and London, 1792-'4). In 1782 he was elected
professor of botany in the University of Pennsylvania,
but declined the place on account of his health.
In 1786 he became a member of the American
philosophical society, and he was also connected with other
scientific bodies. Mr. Bartram was the author
of “Anecdotes of a Crow,” “Description of
Certhia,” and “Memoirs of John Bartram.” In 1789 he
wrote “Observations on the Creek and Cherokee
Indians,” which was published in 1851 (“Transactions
American Ethnological Society,” vol. iii.). He
drew the illustrations in Barton's “Elements of
Botany,” and many of the most curious and beautiful
plants of North America were illustrated and
first made known by him. He also published the
most complete list of American birds previous to
Alexander Wilson, whom he greatly assisted at
the outset of his career. The engraving shows the
Bartram homestead, on the Schuylkill.
BASCOM, Henry Bidleman, M. E. bishop, b. in Hancock, Delaware co., N. Y.. 27 May, 1796; d. in Louisville, Ky., 8 Sept., 1850. He was descended from a Huguenot family. He had but little education, but before the age of eighteen he was licensed to preach, and admitted to the Ohio conference, where he did hard work on the frontier, preaching in one year 400 times, and receiving a salary of
$12.10. "His style being too florid to suit the taste of those to whom he preached, he was transferred, in 1816, to Tennessee ; but, after filling appointments there and in Kentucky, he returned to Ohio in 1822, and in 1823 Henry Clay obtained
