Thomas Barker (academic) explained

Thomas Barker (– 18 August 1785) was an English clergyman and Oxford academic.^[1]

Barker was born in Lancashire and matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1745, at age 17. He graduated B.A. in 1749, M.A. in 1751, B.D. & D.D. in 1778.

Becoming a Fellow of Brasenose in 1750, Barker was a member of the Red Herring dining club, which had Jacobite associations and ceased meeting in 1761, at the end of its existence.^{[2] [3]}

Barker was elected Principal of Brasenose on 14 September 1777. He died in Manchester on 18 August 1785, and was buried there.^[4] He was succeeded after his death by William Cleaver.^[5]

During Barker's time, Brasenose was the butt of satirical humour in Hannah Cowley's 1779 play Who's the Dupe?, for pedantry, provincial manners and unfashionable dress, in the character Gradus.^[6]

Notes and References

1. "The History and Antiquities of the Colleges and Halls in the University of Oxford":, Vol 3 p365 à Wood, A: Oxford; Clarendon; 1786
2. Book: Oxford Historical Society . Brasenose College quatercentenary monographs . 1909 . Oxford : Printed for the Oxford Historical Society at the Clarendon Press . Monograph XIII, 29 .
3. Book: Sack . James J. . From Jacobite to Conservative . 1993 . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-43266-5 . 58 . en.
4. Foster. Joseph. 1893. Oxford Men and Their Colleges. 347. Page:Oxford men and their colleges.djvu/278.
5. Book: Oxford Historical Society . Brasenose College quatercentenary monographs . 1909 . Oxford : Printed for the Oxford Historical Society at the Clarendon Press . Monograph XIII, 32 .
6. Book: Crook . Joseph Mordaunt . Brasenose: The Biography of an Oxford College . 2008 . Oxford University Press . 102 . 9780199544868 . en.