Barrow founded the trust with the idea of building a university on the Isle of Man.
He was shocked at the state of knowledge of the Manx clergy and decided that the best way to eradicate their ignorance was to found an institution to educate prospective clergymen.
It was not until a hundred and seventy five years later, in 1833, that King William's College, a fee-paying public school rather than a university, opened its doors.
Although there are no paintings of Barrow, his coat of arms survive on his tombstone and on the crest of King William's College.
Barrow wrote, "At my coming into the Island, I found the people for the most part loose and vicious in their lives, rude and barbarous in their behaviour; and – which I suppose the cause of this disorder – without any true sense of religion, and, indeed, in a condition almost incapable of being bettered; for they had no means of instruction.