BARHAM, RICHARD HARRIS English humourist, better known by his noon de plume of THOMAS IN GOLDSBY, was born at Canterbury on Dec. 6, 1788, and died in London on June 17, 1845. At seven years of age he lost his father, who left him a small estate, part of which was the manor of Tappington, so frequently mentioned in the Legends. At nine he was sent to St. Paul's school, but his studies were interrupted by an accident which shattered his arm and partially crippled it for life. In 1807 he entered Brasenose college, Oxford; in 1813 he was ordained and took a country curacy; he married in the following year, and in 18 21 removed to London on obtaining the appointment of minor canon of St. Paul's cathedral. Three years later he became one of the priests in ordinary of the king's chapel royal, and was appointed to a city living. On the establish ment of Bentley's Miscellany in 1837 he began to furnish the series of metrical tales known as The Ingoldsby Legends. In variety and whimsicality of rhymes these verses have hardly a rival since the days of Hudibras. But beneath this obvious popu lar quality there lies a store of solid antiquarian learning, the fruit of patient, enthusiastic research, in out-of-the-way old books.
Barham's life was grave, dignified and highly honoured. His sound judgment and his kind heart made him the trusted counsellor, the valued friend and the frequent peacemaker; and he was intolerant of all that was mean and base and false.
A short memoir, by his son, was prefixed to a new edition of Ingoldsby in 1847, and a fuller Life and Letters, from the same hand, was published in 187o.