| Authorised form of name | Barkly; Sir; Henry (1815 - 1898); colonial governor |
| Other forms of surname | Barclay |
| Dates | 1815 - 1898 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Highbury, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe |
| Date of birth | 24 February 1815 |
| Place of death | 1 Bina Gardens, South Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe |
| Date of death | 20 October 1898 |
| Dates and places | Burial:
Brompton Cemetery, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe |
| Occupation | Politician; colonial governor; plantation and slave owner |
| Research field | Natural history |
| Botany |
| Activity | Education:
Bruce Castle School, Tottenham, London
Career:
Worked for his father's company Davidson & Barkly, a West India trading company (c 1832); family owned an estate in British Guiana [Guyana] which Barkly inherited (1836); went to Demerara [now part of Guyana]; travelled through British and Dutch Guiana; returned to England (1845); Conservative (Peelite) MP for Leominster (1845-1848); supporter of free trade; Governor of British Guiana (1849-1853); Governor of Jamaica (1853-1856); Governor of Victoria, Australia (1856-1863); Governor of Mauritius (1863-1870); Governor of Cape Colony and High Commisioner of South Africa (1871-1877); worked with the first elected Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, John Molteno; supported the local resistance against Carnarvon's attempt to force the region into a British ruled federation; Royal Commission on Colonial Defence (1879); made scientific collections and sent botanical specimens from places he visited; in retirement devoted himself to scientific pursuits and to committee work for the London Library
Memberships:
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (1870)
Honours:
KCB 1853; GCMG 1874 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 02/06/1864 |
| Age at election | 59 |
| Other Royal Society activity | Occasional correspondent regarding, for example, colonial observatories (1860s) |
| Relationships | Parents: Aeneas Barkly and Susannah Louisa
Married: 1) Elizabeth Helen Timmins; 2) Anne Maria Pratt |
| General context | Barkly's colonial career came to an end after his disobeyance of the Earl of Carnarvon's instructions on a South African union although he was subsequently nominated for the Royal Commission on Colonial Defence. Despite his scientific interests showcased especially in retirement, Barkly was fairly inactive in the Royal Society's work. Barkly's father Aeneas was a West India merchant and a plantation and slave owner, who was awarded compensation for the enslaved people he'd held at various estates across the Caribbean when the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was enacted. In 1836, Henry Barkly himself was awarded for his claims of over £3,000 for 142 enslaved people on the Mount Parnassus Estate on Grenada and of nearly £2,000 for 148 enslaved people on the Mount St George estate in Tobago [now Republic of Trinidad and Tobago]. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Wikipedia; UCL LBS; ODNB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc 1905 vol 75 pp 23-25 signed by J D H
References:
Vanity Fair 09 July 1887
Cohen, A. 2002. 'Roland Trimen and the merope harem', in Notes and Records, vol. 56, pp. 205-218
R W Home, 'The Royal Society and the Empire: the colonial and Commonwealth Fellowship. Part 2. After 1847' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 47-84
Home, R W. 2003. 'The Royal Society and the Empire: the colonial and Commonwealth Fellowship. Part 2. After 1847', in Notes and Records, vol. 57, pp. 47-84
'Henry Barkly', on Legacies of British Slave-ownership database [http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/10612; last accessed 14/12/2022] |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/92954339 |
| Royal Society code | NA1327 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| NLB/17/462 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Fellow of the Royal Society | 3 November 1898 |
| EC/1864/02 | Barkly, Sir Henry: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| MC/11/59 | Letter from Sir Henry Barkly, 25 Queens Gate Terrace, to the Secretary of the Royal Society | 11 May 1877 |
| MC/7/166 | Copy letter from Edward Sabine, President of the Royal Society, Burlington House, to Sir Frederick Rogers | 26 January 1865 |
| MC/7/165 | Letter from Frederic Rogers, Downing Street, to Major General [Edward] Sabine, [President of the Royal Society] | 21 January 1865 |
| MC/7 | Volume 7 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1864-1866 |
| MS/257/1/102 | Letter from Henry Barkly, Government House, Mauritius to Edward Sabine | 15 December 1866 |
| MS/257/1/297 | Copy of a letter from Henry Barkly, Mauritius to Lord Carnarvon | 3 November 1866 |
| MC/11 | Volume 11 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1877-1879 |