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BARRINGTON, GEORGE (b. 1755)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 437 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARRINGTON, See also:GEORGE (b. 1755) , an Irishman with a curious See also:history, was See also:born at See also:Maynooth on the 14th of May 1755, the son of a working silversmith named Waldron. In 1771 he robbed his schoolmaster at See also:Dublin and ran away from school, becoming a member of a touring theatrical See also:company under the assumed name of Barrington. At See also:Limerick races he joined the manager of the company in See also:pocket-picking. The manager was detected and sentenced to transportation, and Barrington fled to See also:London, where he assumed clerical See also:dress and continued his pocket-picking. At Covent See also:Garden See also:theatre he robbed the See also:Russian See also:prince See also:Orlov of a See also:snuff-See also:box, said to be See also:worth £30,000. He was detected and arrested, but as Prince Orlov declined to prosecute, was discharged, though subsequently he was sentenced to three years' hard labour for pocket-picking at See also:Drury See also:Lane theatre. On his See also:release he was again caught at his old practices and sentenced to five years' hard labour, but See also:influence secured his release on the See also:condition that he See also:left See also:England. He accordingly went for a See also:short See also:time to Dublin, and then returned to London, where he was once more detected pocket-picking, and, in 1790, sentenced to seven years' transportation. On the voyage out to See also:Botany See also:Bay a See also:conspiracy was hatched by the convicts on See also:board to seize the See also:ship. Barrington disclosed the See also:plot to the See also:captain, and the latter, on reaching New See also:South See also:Wales, reported him favourably to the authorities, with the result that in 1792 Barrington obtained a See also:warrant of emancipation (the first issued), becoming subsequently See also:superintendent of convicts and later high See also:constable of Paramatta. In 1796 a theatre was opened at See also:Sydney, the See also:principal actors being convicts, and Barrington wrote the See also:prologue to the first See also:production.

This prologue has obtained a wide publicity. It begins: " From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come, Though not with much eclat or See also:

beat of See also:drum; True patriots we, for, be it understood, We left our See also:country for our country's See also:good." Barrington died at a ripe old See also:age at Paramatta, but the exact date is not on See also:record. He was the author of A Voyage to Botany Bay (London, 18o1); The History of New South Wales (London, 1802); The History of New See also:Holland (London, 18o8).

End of Article: BARRINGTON, GEORGE (b. 1755)

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