Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barker, William (fl.1572)
BARKER, WILLIAM (fl. 1572), translator, was educated in the university of Cambridge at the cost of Queen Anne Boleyn. He appears to have commenced M.A. in 1540, and to have been a member either of Christ's College or of St. John's College. After travelling in Italy, he served as one of the members for Great Yarmouth in the parliaments which met in January 1557–8, January 1558–9, and April 1571, and was M.P. for Bramber in 1562–3. He was one of the Duke of Norfolk's secretaries, and was deeply implicated in that nobleman's plots. About 4 Sept. 1571 he was committed to the Tower. At first he denied what was imputed to him, but he was soon induced by fear of the rack to make confessions which seriously involved the duke, who, however, denied many of his statements, and contemptuously styled him an Italianified Englishman.
Barker was probably the author of the following works:
- ‘Epitaphia et inscriptiones lugubres, cum in Italia animi causa peregrinatur, collecta,’ Lond. 1554, 1566, 4to.
- ‘St. Basil the Great, his Exhortation to his kinsmen to the studie of the Scriptures’ translated, Lond. 1557, 8vo.
- ‘The viii bookes of Xenophon, containing the institution, schole, and education of Cyrus, the noble king of Persye: also his civil and principal estate, his expedition into Babilon, Syria, and Egypt, and his exhortation before his death to his children. Translated out of Greek into English,’ Lond. 1567, 8vo. Another edition containing only six books was printed by R. Wolfe, Lond. n. d. Dedicated to William, earl of Pembroke.
- ‘The Fearfull Fancies of the Florentine Cooper. Written in Tuscane by John Baptist Gelli, one of the free studie of Florence. And for recreation translated into English,’ Lond. 1568, 1599, 8vo.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), i. 142; Ames's Typographical Antiquities (ed. Herbert), 610, 612, 791, 795, 797, 1003; Manship and Palmer's Great Yarmouth, ii. 198, 199; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 275, 556; Jardine's Criminal Trials, i. 134–7, 174, 175, 188, 191, 194–225, 232, 233; Calendar of State Papers.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.15
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 213 | ii | 10 | Barker, William: after 1571 insert and was M.P. for Bramber in that of 1562-3 |