BARTON, ELIZABETH (c. 1506-1534), "the maid of Kent," was, according to her own statement, born in 1506 at Aldington, Kent. She appears to have been a neurotic girl, subject to epilepsy, and an illness in her nineteenth year resulted in hysteria and religious mania. She was at the time a servant in the house of Thomas Cobb, steward of an estate near Aldington owned by William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury. During her convalescence she passed into trances lasting for days at a time, and in this state her ravings were of such "marvellous holiness in rebuke of sin and vice" that the country folk believed her to be inspired. Cobb reported the matter to Richard Masters, the parish priest, who in turn acquainted Archbishop Warham. The girl having recovered, and finding herself the object of local admiration, was cunning enough, as she confessed at her trial, to feign trances, during which she continued her prophecies. Her fame steadily growing, the archbishop in 1526 instructed the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, to send two of his monks to hold an inquiry into the case. One of these latter, Edward Bocking, obtained her admission as a nun to St Sepulchre's convent, Canterbury. Under Bocking's instruction Barton's prophecies became still more remarkable, and attracted many pilgrims, who believed her to be, as she asserted, in direct communication with the Virgin Mary. Her utterances were cunningly directed towards political matters, and a profound and widespread sensation was caused by her declaration that should Henry persist in his intention of divorcing Catherine he "should no longer be king of this realm ... and should die a villain's death." Even such men as Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, corresponded with Barton. On his return from France in 1532 Henry passed through Canterbury and is said to have allowed the nun to force herself into his presence, when she made an attempt to terrify him into abandoning his marriage. After its solemnization in May 1533. her utterances becoming still more treasonable, she was examined before Cranmer (who had in March succeeded to the archbishopric on Warham's death) and confessed. On the 25th of September Bocking and another monk, Hadley, were arrested, and in November, Masters and others were implicated. The maid and her fellow prisoners were examined before the Star Chamber, and were by its order publicly exposed at St Paul's Cross, where they each read a confession. In January 1534 by a bill of attainder the maid and her chief accomplices were condemned to death, and were executed at Tyburn on the 20th of April. It has been held that her confession was extracted by force, and therefore valueless, but the evidence of her imposture seems conclusive.
See Froude, History of England; Burnet, History of the Reformation; Lingard, History of England; F. A. Gasquet, Henry VIII.
and the English Monasteries (ch. iii. 1899 ed.); T. E. Bridgett, Life of Blessed John Fisher (1888); vols. vi. and vii. of Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.; James Gairdner, The English Church in the 16th Century (1899); Strype, Memorials, I. i. 271, and Cranmer; a detailed account of the case is contained in the published Act of Attainder 25 Henry VIII. c. 12.
BARTON BEDS, in geology, the name given to a series of softish grey and brown clays, with layers of sand, of Upper Eocene age, which are found in the Hampshire Tertiary basin, where they are particularly well exposed in the cliffs of Barton, Hordwell, and in the Isle of Wight. Above the highly fossiliferous Barton Clay there is a sandy series with few fossils; these are the Headon Hill or Barton Sands. Either of these names is preferable to the term "Upper Bagshot Beds," which has been applied to these sands. The Barton Beds are absent from the London basin, and the Upper Bagshot Sands of that area are probably at a lower horizon than the Barton Sands. The term "Bartonien" was introduced by Mayer-Eymar in 1857 for the continental equivalents of the series.
Hampshire basin and |
| Paris Basin. | |||
Barton Sands | 140-200 ft. | } | Bartonien | { | Limestone of St. Ouen. |
Fusus longaevus, Volutilithes luctatrix, Ostrea gigantea, Pectunculus (Glycimeris) deleta are characteristic fossils; fishes (Lamna, Arius, &c.) and a crocodile (Diplocynodon) are also found in the Barton Clay. The sands are very pure and are used in glass making.
See "Geology of the Isle of Wight," Mem. Geol. Survey (2nd ed., 1889); and "The Geology of the Country around Southampton," Mem. Geol. Survey (1902).
(J. A. H.)
BARTON-UPON-HUMBER, a market town in the N. Lindsey or Brigg parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England, the terminus of a branch of the Great Central railway, 44 m. N. by E. of Lincoln. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5671. It lies beneath low hills, on flat ground bordering the Humber, but the centre of the town is a mile from the river. The church of St Peter has a remarkable west tower of pre-Conquest workmanship, excepting the early Norman top storey. Against the western face is a low building of the date of the lower tower-storeys, measuring 15 ft. by 12, with rude, deeply-splayed windows. The tower itself is arcaded in the two lower storeys, having round arches in the lower and triangular in the upper, and there is a round-headed S. doorway and a triangular-headed N. doorway. The rest of the church is Decorated and Perpendicular. The church of St Mary is fine Early English with Perpendicular clerestory. Industries include brick-making, malting, and rope-making. Barton appears in Domesday, when the ferry over the Humber existed. As a port, moreover, it subsequently rose into some importance, for it was able to supply eight ships and men to the expedition of Edward III. to Brittany.
BARUCH, the name (meaning "Blessed" in Hebrew) of a character in the Old Testament (Jer. xxxvi., xxxvii., xliii.), associated with the prophet Jeremiah, and described as his secretary and spokesman.