Sir John Barrow Cottage

Sir John Barrow Cottage

Sir John Barrow Cottage
Ulverston
Cumbria
LA12 0HA

Tel: 01229 587 120
E-Mail: heritagefirst@hotmail.co.uk

Web: Sir John Barrow Cottage

About Sir John Barrow Cottage

John Barrow was born at Dragley Beck, Ulverston on 19th of June 1764, the son of a yeoman farmer. He was educated at Town Bank Grammar School. Before the age of 20, he experienced a variety of important jobs including tutor, surveyor's assistant and head bookkeeper in a Liverpool iron foundry.
His adventurous spirit led him to the whaling grounds of Greenland. He brought home as a souvenir a whale's jawbone which stood outside his cottage for many years. After teaching mathematics at Greenwich, Barrow was appointed tutor to the son of Sir George Staunton and in 1792, was asked to accompany Lord McCartney to Britain's first Embassy in China. Later he explored the interior of South Africa and was entrusted with the task of reconciling the Boers and Kaffirs. For a while he settled in South Africa, and married Anna Maria Truter, before returning to England in 1803.
The British Government decided to make use of Barrow's extensive knowledge and appointed him Second Secretary to the Admiralty. He was the guiding hand that brought the Admiralty Board, the Navy Board, plus all the subsidiary authorities into a single department of the state - the greatest improvement in the running of the Royal Navy since the days of Samuel Pepys.
After Britain's great military victorie