BARCLAY, ROBERT (164S-90). A Scottish divine; the celebrated apologist of the Quakers. He was born on December 23, 1648, at Gordons town, in Morayshire, Scotland. His father was the son of David Barclay, of Blathers, the repre sentative of an old Scoto-Norman family, which traced itself through fifteen intervening genera tions to Walter de Berkeley, who acquired a set tlement in Scotland about the middle of the Twelfth Century; his mother was the daughter of Sir Robert Gordon, the premier baronet of Nova Scotia, and historian of the house of Sutherland. Young Barclay received the rudi ments of learning in his native country, and was afterwards sent to the Scotch College at Paris, of which his uncle was rector. Here he made rapid progress in his studies, and excited the admira tion of his preceptors, as well as of his relative, who offered to make him his heir if he would remain in France, and formally adopt the Roman Catholic religion, to the ceremonies of which he had been habituated during his residence there. This, however, Barclay refused to do; and in compliance with the wish which his mother had expressed on her death-bed, he returned home in 1664. Though only 16, Barclay was an ex cellent scholar, and could speak Latin with won derful fluency and correctness. In 1666 his father became a Friend, and the next. year .Bar clay followed him. He states in his Treatise on Universal Lore, that his 'first education fell among the strictest sort of Calvinists,' those of his country `surpassing in the heat of zeal not only Geneva, from whence they derive their pedi gree, but all the other so-called Reformed Churches;' that shortly afterwards, his tran sition to France had thrown him among the op posite 'sect of Papists,' whom, after a time, he found to he no less deficient in charity than the other; and that, consequently, he had refrained from joining any, though he had listened to sev eral. The ultimate effect of this was to liberalize his mind, by convincing him of the follyand wick edness of religious strife. In both Calvinists and Catholics, he found an absence of 'the principles of love,' a straitness of doctrine,' and a 'practice of persecution,' which offended his idea of Chris tianity, as well as his gentle and generous nature. He therefore allied himself gladly to the Friends, whose distinguishing feature was their charity and pure simplicity of Christian life, and soon became one of their most devoted adherents and their ablest advocate. In the course of his life he made several excursions into England, Holland, and Germany, earnestly propagating his peaceful views wherever he went, and occasionally enjoy ing the companionship of William Penn.
his first publication was Truth Cleared of Calumnies. It appeared in 1070, and was in tended as a refutation of the charges—many of them notoriously false—made against the new sect. In 1673 appeared A Catechism and Con
fession of Faith, the answers to the questions being—to avoid theological dogmatism—in the words of Scripture. This was followed by The .4 aarelly of the Ranters, in 1676, and the same year he published his magnum, opus, elaborately entitled An Apology for the True Christian. Divinity, as the same is Held forth and Preached by the People called in Scorn Quakers. which he had previously sent forth, and upon which he held a public disputation at Aberdeen with some divin ity students (March 14,1675). It contains a state ment and defense of 15 religious propositions peculiar to the Friends. The leading doctrine which runs through the whole book is, that divine truth is made known to us not by logical investigation, hut by intuition or immediate revelation; and that the faculty, if it can be technically defined, by which such intuition is rendered possible, is the 'internal light,' the source of which is God, or, more properly Christ, `who is the light that lighteth every man that cornett' into the world.' In 1677 appeared his Treatise on Universal Lore. It was the first of that long series of noble and gentle remon strances against the criminality of war that has so honorably distinguished the Society of Friends. It was addressed to the ambassadors of the several princes of Europe, met at Nime guen, and was composed in prison at Cry, near the city of Aberdeen, where lie, his father, and many other Friends were confined for their faith's sake. He was released after five months, and during the latter part of his life enjoyed court favor unmolested. In 1683 the Duke of York gave the Friends the patent of the Province of East Jersey, and Barclay was made nominal governor. Ile never came to America, however. In 1686 lie published his last work, which was a defense of the doctrine of 'immediate revelation.' He died at Ury, October 3. 1690. His estate remained in the possession of his de scendants till the death, in 1854, of Robert Barclay Allardice, better known as Captain Bar clay, the famous pedestrian. 'The Apologist's Study,' which remained much as lie left it, was long an object of pilgrimage with members of the Society of Friends; but it was destroyed a few years ago, when the old house of Ury was pulled down. Barclay's works were published in a col lected edition entitled Truth Triumphant (Lon don, 1692: later edition, 1717-18, 3 vols.). For his biography, consult Wilson Armistead (Man chester, 1850). His Apology and Catechism and Treatise on Church GOVCI*111lIent (formerly called, as above, Time Anarchy of the Ranters) have been reprinted by the Friends' Book Store (Philadel phia) .