William BARNES (1801-1886) biography has already been written and this link is to the brief account of his life given on the Dorset County Museum website where it is possible to access an on on-line copy of 'The Life of William Barnes' published in 1887 by his daughter Lucy Emily Baxter (who wrote under the name of Leader Scott). I have relied heavily upon this first hand account concerning his connection with Dorchester.

The purpose of this document is to provide more background in relation to the time he lived in Dorchester and links to other relevant documents on this site:-

DORCHESTER 1818-1823

William BARNES, according to his daughters account, first came to Dorchester in 1818 when he became an engrossing clerk with the firm Thomas Coombs and Sons, Solicitors in Dorchester. They were based in South Street and the Company was run by Thomas COOMBS the Elder (1777-1852) who had married Emma Dowland the year before Barnes arrival. Thomas Coombs was an influential man in Dorchester and Barnes employed as a clerk to the Magistrates so he was immediately immersed in the politics of the Corporation as it set about running the town. Thomas Coombs status was to continue to grow and in 1839 he was elected Mayor of Dorchester by which time he was also Steward to the Duchy of Cornwall. He was to become a close friend of Barnes for the rest of his life.

While fulfilling his clerkly duties, Barnes and a friend, William CAREY (afterwards a lawyer at Calne), lodged together in apartments above John HAZARD's pastry cook's shop in South Street, and the spare time of the two young men passed in reading and studying. The Rector of St Peters Rev. Henry John RICHMAN (1756-1824), soon found out his new parishioners passion for learning and kindly gave him evening lessons in the classics, placing his library at Barnes disposal and laying the foundations of that classical knowledge which underlies all his philological studies. Barnes must have been greatly distressed by the tragic death of the Rector in 1824 when during a violent storm both he and his wife were killed when the chimney stack of their house fell through the roof onto the bed they were sleeping in.

His daughter records:-

"One day not many months after young Barnes arrived at Dorchester, he was walking up the High Street, when the stage coach drew up with a great dash and clatter of the hoofs of steaming horses. William Barnes paused to see the passengers alight. From the seat behind the driver a family party descended; first a portly, matronly lady, and then the lithe figures of two young girls, one of whom, a slight elegant child of about sixteen⁽¹⁾, sprang easily down with a bright smile. She had blue eyes and wavy brown hair and wore a sky blue "spencer" (which was a name our grandmothers gave to a jacket) and at sight of her the incipient poet felt his heart suddenly awakened to poesy. He has often told his children that the unbidden thought came into his mind "that shall be my wife".

I do not know how long it was before he discovered that her name was Julia MILES, and that her father , an excise officer, was to be quartered at Dorchester, but that the first bright vision grew into a reality in his life is shown by its stirring the water of the spring of poesy to its first flow in some lines, "To Julia", published in the Weekly Entertainer of the year 1820, page 159 which we give not because they are in any way adequate to his more mature genius, but because they are the very first expression of his soul in verse."

"To Julia"

"When the moonlight is spread on those meadows so green,
Which the Frome's limpid current glides by,
To mark its calm progress, to gaze on the scene,
May delight the poetical eye.

"To one who in some remote climate has pass'd
A long absence from all he loved here,
How sweet the first glance of the land, as at last
To his own native isle he draws near.

"But by far more delightful and sweet'tis to gaze
On thy bright azure eyes as they dart
From under those tremulous lids their bright rays
And glances for glances impart.

"The smile of the Muse may the poet beguile,
Or the smile of gay Nature in spring;
To others Dame Fortune's precarious smile
Its many enjoyments may bring.

"I would envy no poet with thy smile if blest,
Nor at Fortune's dire frown e'er repine,
For Muse's nor Fortune's smile ne'er yet possess'd
Aught to rival the sweetness of thine.

" Dorchester 1820"

So it was in High East Street, Dorchester that Barnes fell in love with Julia MILES (1805-1852) as she stepped down from a 'Magnet' stagecoach in the cobbled yard of the 'Kings Arms Hotel' . The 'Magnet' coach ran from Weymouth to London calling at the Kings Arms in Dorchester every morning at half past five, before running on to London via Blandford, Salisbury, Andover and Bagshot. Coaches returning to Dorchester arrived at the Kings Arms at eight in the evening. Julia was the daughter of James Camfield MILES (1773-1832) by his wife Isabella LEADER (1772-1853) and had been born in Essex at Saffron Waldon on 11th Feb 1805, so she was still very young when he first saw her. Her parents are said to have initially opposed him as a suitor, on the grounds of poverty, and even curtailed chaperoned meetings between them. They became engaged however in 1822 when Julia was seventeen and his poem "The Aquatic Excursion" was written in recollection of a happy hour spent with Julia on the river Frome shortly before he left Dorchester. He made many friends during this time including Edward Fuller with whom he studied French. They played music together, Fuller the flute and Barnes the violin. They also made a quartet at the house of Mr Zillwood⁽²⁾ who was a good violinist and his sister Mary played well on the Forte Piano.

MERE WILTSHIRE 1823-1834

In 1823 Barnes left Dorchester to take up the post of schoolmaster in Mere Wiltshire.

When Julia reached the age of 21 and he had established himself as a successful schoolmaster, he applied for a marriage licence and they were duly married on the 9th July 1827 at Holy Trinity Church in Nailsea, Somerset. After marriage they returned to Mere and his role as schoolmaster taking Chantry House, which became a day and boarding school for boys and girls. Here their first three children were born.

DORCHESTER 1835-1862 - 'Gentleman's Boarding School'

On June 26th 1835 William Barnes left Chantry House at Mere and moved back to Dorchester living in a narrow house in Durngate Street where he established a Boarding School. By 1837 the house was not large enough so they moved to a roomy old house at 40 South Street which had a two storey annex forming a spacious school and play-rooms. Robert's Directory of Dorchester dated in 1839 describes this as a 'Gentleman's Boarding School'.⁽⁶⁾ The June 1841 Census simply shows him as a schoolmaster resident with his family in South Street and 14 male pupils as boarders, ages from 10 to 24. Helping him run the school is his mother-in-law Isabella Miles and an assistant Frederick Gillard aged 20 to 24. ⁽⁴⁾. William Barnes was appointed curate of Whitcombe near Dorchester in 1847 but continued to run his boarding school in Dorchester.

By the time of the more accurate March 1851 Census he is quite successful with 17 male boarders, their ages ranging from 9 to 16. To this we need to add three of his own children, the 11 year aged William Barnes, the 8 year old Egbert and if correct his 12 year old daughter Isabella. His mother-in-law Isabella Miles is now aged 82 and recorded as a supervision widow. Helping William Barnes run the school are two school tutors, the 35 year old Isaac Hann⁽⁵⁾ who taught commercial & classical mathematics and 22 year old George Brewer. Unfortunately Julia Barnes his wife died at the relatively young age of 46 and was buried at St Peters on 28 Jun 1852. His wife was quickly followed by his 83 year old mother-in-law Isabella Miles who was also buried at St Peters on 28th Feb 1853.

The 1861 Census shows William still living at 40 South Street in Dorchester with his unmarried daughter Lucy when he was described as a 'Clergyman without cure of souls, a schoolmaster, author in poetry and philosophy'. Also in that Census living in North Square is a master butcher, Joseph LOCK with his wife Elizabeth and 6 children. One of these children was John Bascombe Lock (1849-1921) then 12 years old and described as a scholar. He was in fact a student at William Barnes School⁽³⁾ and many years later after he had become a senior fellow, assistant tutor and lecturer in mathematics and physics in Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, he recalled Barnes Teaching method:-

"I was sent to his school in South Street when about eight years old, and I can still picture to myself the old school room in which once a week Mr Barnes arrived punctually at nine o'clock, to give the whole school a lecture on practical science. His lecture on electricity - he gave us some sharp shocks with a frictional machine - on the physical geography of the Alps, on the steam engine - he showed us a model which his son Egbert Barnes had made - on bridge building - he had a model arch in wooden bricks - I can still remember in detail. We each, big and little, to write an abstract of the lecture in the most approved modern fashion. It seems worth recalling that such lectures were given in Dorchester thirty years ago, just such lectures as are now given in most of the great public schools, in which such subjects were still untaught much less than 30 years ago. These lectures of my old master were as wonderfully adapted to his audience, as they were clear and accurate."