Poet. Like John Greenleaf Whittier in America, he is known as “The Quaker Poet”. He was born in Carlisle, but became apprenticed to a shopkeeper in Suffolk. In 1806, he moved to Woodbridge in the same county, where, with his brother, he founded a coal and corn merchants. At about this time, he married ; unfortunately, within the year, his wife died in childbirth. Barton then re-located to Liverpool, but soon returned to Woodbridge to take up a post as clerk in Alexander’s Bank. In his free time, he wrote ten books of poetry, many of his works having become hymns. Among his great friends was his fellow poet, Edward FitzGerald (q.v.). In 1856, seven years after Barton’s death, FitzGerald married Barton’s daughter, Lucy ; unfortunately, the marriage was not a success, and the pair soon separated, (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)