BARNARD, JAMES, 1733-1803. 
Collection, ca.1784-1787

ACCESS: Unrestricted

REPRODUCTION: All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

COPYRIGHT: Information on copyright (literary rights) available from repository.

CITATION: James Barnard Collection, MSS 048, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. 

Friend and biographer of Bishop Richard Challoner, James Barnard was born in London in 1733 of Protestant parents. According to one account of his early life, after studying at the Blue Coat School in London, he went to South America as supercargo to a ship. In South America, he converted to Catholicism and was admitted to the Bishop's Seminary. In another account, he was sent to Seville at an early age and was employed in a mercantile house, where he became a Catholic at the age of 23. Soon afterwards, he was admitted into the English College in Seville where he was ordained a priest. In 1758, he left Seville for the English College in Lisbon.

He studied theology in Lisbon from 1758 until 1761, when he was sent to the English mission. He continued to labor in the London district until he assumed the presidency of the English College in Lisbon in 1776. In 1782, he resigned the presidency of the Lisbon college and returned to London where he assumed the spiritual charge of the school at Brook Green and also, was appointed Vicar-General of the London district. He died in London on September 12, 1803.

Among the books he wrote are:

A Dialogue Between a Parishioner and the Rector of his Parish, Concerning the Oath Required by the National Assembly, to be Taken by the Established Clergy. Translated by Barnard from the second edition printed at Paris, 1793.
A Catechism: or Collection of Some Points of Christian Faith and morality, composed in verse...To Which Is Added An Invitation to and Method of Making Spiritual Retreat. London: J.P. Coghlan, 1786.
The Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ Demonstrated from the Holy Scriptures and from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church, in a Series of Letters Addressed to the Rev. Dr. Joseph Priestly, in answer to his letters to the Rev. Dr. Geddes. London: Robinsons, 1789.
A General View of the Arguments for the Divinity of Christ, and Plurality of Persons in God, from the Holy Scriptures and from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church. London, 1793.
The Life of the Venerable and Right Reverend Richard Challoner... London: J.P. Coghlan, 1784.

J. Gillow. A Literary and Biographical History, or bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics. London, 1885.

J. Kirk. Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century. London, 1909.

This collection consists of a two-volume set entitled The Real Presence and one bound manuscript volume of sermons.

The Real Presence is an eighteenth-century manuscript in which James Barnard refutes the arguments, against transubstantiation and other Catholic doctrines, posed by Mr. Chauvel, a clergyman of the Church of England. The first volume of The Real Presence is addressed to "Madam," who is probably Miss Saer, a Catholic lady who had been presented a manuscript by Mr. Chauvel in an effort to persuade her to convert to Protestantism. The second volume, addressed to "Sir" (Mr. Chauvel), continues Rev. Barnard's arguments against Mr. Chauvel's theological position.

Both volumes are leather-bound and contain the stamp of the Catholic Workers College, Oxford. The first volume is inscribed "From the library of Revd. Wm Victor Fryer, of the Portuguese Embassy Chapel, Godfather of Mary Cowden Clarke, whose father Vincent Novello was organist of the chapel for 26 years." (William Victor Fryer succeeded James Barnard as the president of the English College in Lisbon) The first volume also contains an index, which serves as the Table of Contents to both volumes.

The volume of sermons is a collection of sermons written for days of special liturgical significance. At the beginning of the volume is a sermon for All Saints Day followed by sermons for the fourth Sunday in Advent, Christmas Day, the Sunday after the Nativity, the third Sunday following the Epiphany, etc.. The order of the sermons follows the liturgical calendar. At the beginning of each sermon is a list of "corrections and alterations" for that sermon.  Dates written at the beginning of some of the sermons indicate that they may have been written or delivered between 1784 and 1787.  These dates do not appear in chronological order within the volume.