xxi HIS PHILANTHROPIC WORK 275 



When the merchants of London were examined at the 

 bar of the House of Commons in 1776 on the effect of the 

 Stamp Act upon British trade, several Friends gave 

 evidence, and Barclay amongst them ; of whom Lord 

 North is stated to have said that he had derived more 

 information from him than from all others east of Temple 

 Bar. 



Barclay took part with Fothergill in two works of 

 much moment, of which we shall write later : the peace 

 negotiations with Franklin and Lord Hyde in 1774-75 ; 

 and the crowning effort of Fothergill's life the founda- 

 tion of Ackworth School, a cause in which Barclay's 

 zeal and labour were only second to his friend's. 



After he retired from his merchant's business, Barclay 

 lived in Red Lion Square during four months of the year, 

 spending the rest of the time at a country house at 

 Youngsbury or Thundridge Bury, near Ware, and moving 

 towards the end of his life nearer town, to Walthamstow. 

 He had a large correspondence, taking a steady and 

 generous interest in religious and philanthropic causes, 

 especially in the Abolition of Slavery, to the close of his 

 long life. In 1795 he sent out a special emissary to 

 Jamaica, to liberate thirty slaves on a property which 

 had fallen to him as owner ; he had them sent on a 

 vessel chartered for the purpose to Philadelphia, and 

 there put out by Friends as apprentices on equitable 

 terms ; the cost to himself was about 3000. 1 



Barclay exercised a benevolent influence in his own 

 neighbourhood, in which his wife fully shared until her 

 death in 1792. A Home of Industry was set up near 

 their residence at Walthamstow, and served a useful 

 purpose : to its support he devoted for several years a 

 large sum of money. As a Quaker he was of course 

 debarred from holding any public office. In 1796 he 

 wrote a memorandum for the Board of Agriculture, in 

 which he advised that some of the waste lands which were 

 to be enclosed should be used for the growth of timber ; 



1 An Account of the Emancipation of the Slaves of Unity Valley Pen, in 

 Jamaica, by David Barclay, 2nd ed. with Appendix. London, 1801. 



