the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[230] appointed, in 1708, one of the Commissioners of the Customs. About the same time, Francis Barrington, Esq. of Tofts, in Essex, who had married a relation of Mr. Shute, left him his estate, on condition of his assuming the name and arms of Barrington. In 1710, he received another accession to his fortune, at the death of Mr. Wildman, of Becket, in Berkshire, who also left him his estate; declaring in his will, that he did so merely because he knew no man who was so worthy of it.

In 1711, the Whig administration being dismissed, Mr. Barrington lost his place as Commissioner of the Customs. In the course of the political contests of that period, which it is well known rose to a more than ordinary pitch of violence and animosity, he continued his connexion with the Whig party, in support of whose views he soon afterwards published a pamphlet entitled, ‘A Dissuasive from Jacobitism.’ This publication, from its connexion with the great question of primary national interest and importance at the period, had a very extensive circulation, and is described¹ as ‘a specimen of clear and exact reasoning, and of a bold and intrepid exposition of the principles of civil liberty against popish superstition and arbitrary power.’ We have little doubt that, on the whole, it deserved this commendation; though some of the extracts given by Mr. Townsend may, perhaps, lead to the suspicion, that the author was led by a prejudice, not at all unnatural in the defenders of civil liberty in those days, to mix up the political and the religious