BARRINGTON, Daines, fourth son of Lord Viscount Barrington, distinguished as an antiquary and naturalist, was educated for the profession of the law, and, after filling various posts, was appointed a Welsh judge in 1757, and afterwards second justice of Chester. He never rose to much eminence at the bar, but he showed his knowledge of the law as a subject of liberal study, by a valuable publication entitled Observations on the Statutes, chiefly the more ancient, from Magna Charta to 21 James I. c. 27, with an Appendix, being a proposal for new-modelling the Statutes, 1766, 4to; a work which has been quoted with merited commendation by many of our historians and constitutional antiquaries. In 1773 he published an edition of Orosius, with Alfred's Saxon version, and an English translation with notes of his own, which was severely inadverted on by the critics. His Tracts on the Probability of reaching the North Pole, 1775, 4to, were written in consequence of the northern voyage of discovery undertaken by Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave. In these he has accumulated a variety of evidence favourable to his own opinion of the practicability of attaining the object in which that voyage had failed; and it is not improbable that his views and arguments had some effect in
Barrister. determining the government of our time to renew the attempt, though with no better success. Mr Barrington's other writings are chiefly to be found in the publications of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, of both of which he was long an assiduous member, and of the latter vice-president. These relate to a variety of topics in natural history and antiquities, and show great industry and research, though with an occasional leaning to singularity and paradox. Many of his tracts were collected by him in a quarto volume entitled Miscellanies on various Subjects, 1781. His Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds, and his Essay on the Language of Birds, are among the most curious and ingenious of his papers, and, with other productions of his pen, prove that he was not only deeply conversant with books, but an attentive and sagacious observer of nature. In private life he was a man of worth and integrity, unambitious, and devoted to study and literary conversation. He resigned his office of justice of Chester in 1785, and afterwards lived in retirement in his chambers in King's-Bench Walks, Inner Temple; associating chiefly with his brother benchers, and amusing himself with superintending the improvements of the gardens. He died on the 14th March 1800, and was buried in the Temple church.