Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barret, William (d.1584)
BARRET, WILLIAM (d. 1584), was British consul at Aleppo when Mr. John Eldred and his companion, William Shales, arrived there on 11 June 1584, and he died eight days after their arrival, as is recorded in Eldred's narrative. He wrote a treatise on ‘The Money and Measures of Babylon, Balsara, and the Indies, with the Customes, &c.,’ which occupies pp. 406 to 416 of the second volume of Hakluyt's ‘Collection of Voyages,’ folio edition, 1810. His notes have a certain value to metrologists, but the only generally interesting portion of his treatise is the paragraph recording the discovery of the island of St. Helena, and its use as a provision depôt for the ‘Portugale’ traders with India.
[Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, 1810, ii. 405–416.]