13 Facts About Daines Barrington

Daines Barrington, FRS, FSA was an English lawyer, antiquary and naturalist.

Daines Barrington was one of the correspondents to whom Gilbert White wrote extensively on natural history topics.

Daines Barrington designed a standard format for the collection of information about weather, the flowering of plants, the singing of birds and other annual changes that was used by Gilbert White.

Daines Barrington wrote on child geniuses including Mozart, who at the age of nine had visited England.

Daines Barrington matriculated at The Queen's College, Oxford, in 1745, but never graduated.

Daines Barrington resigned all his legal offices in 1785, retaining only that of Commissary General of the stores at Gibraltar, which continued to provide him with a substantial income until his death.

In 1773 Daines Barrington published an edition of Orosius, with the Anglo-Saxon version, and an English translation with original notes.

Daines Barrington attempted cross-fostering experiments on birds and noted that young linnets raised with foster parents could be induced to learn the songs of various lark species.

Daines Barrington however dismissed the idea of long-distance migration in birds, and supported the ancient view that swallows went to sleep underwater during winter.

Daines Barrington met the Cornish speaker Dolly Pentreath and published a report of the encounter.

Daines Barrington speaks of a John Nancarrow from Marazion who was a native speaker and survived into the 1790s.

Daines Barrington never married, and lived for most of his life in chambers in King's Bench Walk in the Inner Temple, London.

Daines Barrington was afflicted by paralysis from his legs upward and died after being bedridden for a long time on 14 March 1800; his remains were interred in the vault of the Temple Church.