B A RTON B ARTll AM. 



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Wild. His works, among which are imitations in 

 etching of drawings of the great masters, amount to 

 more than 2000. An English gentleman, Mark 

 Sykes, was in possession of all ot B.'s engravings, 

 including the rough sketches and proofs. They cost 

 him 5000 louis-d'ors, and were sold, with his library 

 and collection of manuscripts, in London, 1824. 



BARTON, Benjamin S., M. IX, professor in the uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, was born at Lancaster, 

 Pennsylvania, 1766. His mother was the sister of 

 the celebrated Rittenhouse. The death of his pa- 

 rents occasioned his removal, in 1782, to the family 

 of a brother in Philadelphia, where he spent several 

 years in the study of literature, the sciences, and me- 

 dicine. In 1786, he went to Great Britain, and pro- 

 secuted his medical studies at Edinburgh and London. 

 He afterwards visited Gottingen, and there obtained 

 the degree of doctor in medicine. On returning to 

 Philadelphia, in 1789, he established himself as a 

 physician in that city, and his superior talents and 

 education soon procured him extensive employment. 

 Shortly after, lie was elected a member of the Ame- 

 rican philosophical society, in that city, and contri- 

 buted to their transactions many papers on various 

 subjects in natural science. He was also, in 1789, 

 appointed professor of natural history and botany in 

 the college of Philadelphia, and continued in the 

 office on the incorporation of the college with the 

 university, in 1791. He was appointed professor of 

 materia medica, in 1795, on the resignation of Dr 

 Griffiths, and, on the death of Dr Rush, succeeded 

 him in the department of the theory and practice of 

 medicine. He died, December 19, 1815. B. was 

 highly distinguished by his talents and professional 

 attainments, and contributed much, by his lectures 

 and writings, to the progress of natural science in 

 the United States. His chief publication is Elements 

 of Zoology and Botany. In 1805, he commenced 

 the Medical and Physical Journal, to which he con- 

 tributed many valuable articles. 



BARTON, Elizabeth; a country girl of Aldington, 

 in Kent (therefore called the holy maid of Kent), of 

 whom English Protestants give this account. She 

 was used as an instrument, by the Catholics and ad- 

 herents of queen Catharine, to excite the English 

 nation against the proposed divorce of Henry VIII. 

 from his first wife, and the apprehended separation 

 of the English church from Rome, with which the 

 king then threatened the pope. Her delirium, in a 

 s - iolent nervous illness, was made use of by the par- 

 son of Aldington, Richard Masters, and by a canon 

 of Canterbury named Bocking, to persuade her that 

 she was a prophetess inspired by God, and destined 

 to prevent this undertaking of the king. During 

 her paroxysms, she cried out against this divorce, 

 and against -the prevailing sins and heresies, and 

 brought the image of the Virgin at Aldington, where 

 she was cured, according to her own prophecy, into 

 great respect, much to the profit of the parson. 

 Bocking, already suspected of an illicit intercourse 

 with her, persuaded her to become a nun ; and the 

 approbation of archbishop Warham of Canterbury 

 and bishop Fisher of Rochester encouraged her to 

 continue her revelations, which she pretended were 

 communicated to her by a letter from heaven. By 

 the prophecy, that Henry, if he persisted in his pur- 

 pose of divorce and second marriage, would not be 

 king for one month longer, and would die a shame- 

 ful death, she excited many ri^onks and nuns to vio- 

 lence against the king. Her revelations, published 

 and distributed by the monk Deering, produced such 

 a fermentation among the people, that Henry ordered 

 the apprehension and examination of Elizabeth and 

 her accomplices before the star-chamber. After 

 tlwy had there confessed the imposture, they were 



condemned to make a public confession and to im- 

 prisonment ; and, when it was found that the party 

 of the queen were labouring to make them retract 

 their confession, they were adjudged guilty of high 

 treason, for a conspiracy against the king, and exe- 

 cuted, April 30, 1554. Warham was already dead ; 

 Fisher was imprisoned, and the former chancellor. 

 Sir Thomas More, being suspected of participation 

 in the scheme, underwent an examination, but was 

 soon released. 



BARTRAM, John, one of the most distinguished oi 

 American botanists, was born in Chester county, 

 Pennsylvania, in 1701. His grandfather, of the 

 sajne name, accompanied William Penn to Ameri- 

 ca, in 1682. B. was a simple farmer. He culti- 

 vated the ground for subsistence, while he indulged 

 an insatiable appetite for botany. He was self-taught 

 in that science, and in the rudiments of the learned 

 languages, and medicine and surgery. So great, in 

 the end, was his proficiency in his favourite pursuit, 

 that Linnasus pronounced him " the greatest natural 

 botanist in the world." He made excursions, in the 

 intervals of agricultural labour, to Florida and 

 Canada, herborizing with intense zeal and delight. 

 At the age of seventy, he performed a journey to 

 East Florida, to explore its natural productions ; at a 

 period, too, when the toils and dangers of such an 

 expedition far exceeded those of any similar one 

 which could be undertaken, at the present time, 

 within the limits of the United States. He first 

 formed a botanic garden in America, for the cultiva- 

 tion of American plants, as well as exotics. Thi? 

 garden, which is situated on the banks of the Schuyl- 

 kill, a few miles from Philadelphia, still bears his 

 name. He contributed much to the gardens of 

 Europe, and corresponded with the most distinguished 

 naturalists of that quarter of the globe. Several 

 foreign societies and academies oestowed their 

 honours upon him, and published communications 

 from him in their transactions. B. died in 1777, in 

 the seventy-sixth year of his age. At the time of his 

 death, he held the office of American botanist to 

 George III. He was amiable and charitable, and of 

 the strictest probity and temperance. 



BARTRAM, William, fourth son of John B., was 

 born, 1739, at the botanic garden, Kingsessing, 

 Pennsylvania. At the age of sixteen years, he was 

 placed with a respectable merchant of Philadelphia, 

 with whom he continued six years ; after which he 

 went to North Carolina, with a view of doing busi- 

 ness there as a merchant ; but, being ardently at- 

 tached to the study of botany, he relinquished his 

 mercantile pursuits, and accompanied his father in a 

 journey into East Florida, to explore the natural pro- 

 ductions of that country ; after which, he settled on 

 the river St John's, in this region, and finally return- 

 ed, about the year 1771, to his father's residence. 

 In 1773, at the request of doctor Fothergill, of Lon- 

 don, he embarked for Charlestown, to examine the 

 natural productions of the Floridas, and the western 

 parts of Carolina and Georgia, chiefly in the vege- 

 table kingdom. In this employment he was engaged 

 nearly five years, and made numerous contributions 

 to the natural history of the country through which 

 he traveled. His collections and drawings were 

 forwarded to doctor Fothergill ; and, about the year 

 1790, he published an account of his travels and dis- 

 coveries, in one vol. 8vo, with an account of the 

 manners and customs of the Creeks, Cherokees, and 

 Choctaws. This work soon acquired extensive popu- 

 larity, and is still frequently consulted. After his 

 return from his travels, he devoted himself to science, 

 and, in 1782, was elected professor of botany in the 

 university of Pennsylvania, which post he declined 

 in consequence of the state of his health. In 1 786, 



