Thomas Barker (academic)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas Barker (c. 1728 – 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.[2]
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.[3][4]
Barker was elected Principal of Brasenose on 14 September 1777. He died in Manchester on 18 August 1785, and was buried there.[5] He was succeeded after his death by William Cleaver.[6]
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.[7]
