His name appears in 1717 on the list of members of the Royal Society, and he states also that shortly after he came to England he was made free of the Company of Surgeons, but his hopes of obtaining the diploma of M.D.
"[1] In his application, in 1720, for the situation of mineral superintendent to a company formed to prosecute silver mining in Jamaica,[4] he stated that his business prospects were so good that he could not sacrifice them for less than £500 a year.
He received the situation on his own terms; but the enterprise, which had been undertaken chiefly through his representations, proved a complete failure, and though a year's salary was due to him it was never paid.
His letters and manuscripts indicate that in early life his education had been neglected; but although sometimes led astray by his own ideas, he possessed a knowledge of the fauna and flora of Jamaica.
[1] Sir Hans Sloane, who refers to him in terms of high commendation, received from him many valuable communications, of which he made large use in his Natural History of Jamaica.
This treatise was published in 1794 with a preface in which it is stated to be the work of Henry Barham, M.D., who, it is added, practised as a physician in Jamaica from the beginning of the century, and after acquiring large property by marriage returned to England in 1740 and settled at Staines near Egham.
Henry Barham, F.R.S., wrote also a History of Jamaica, which his son, after his death, sent to Sir Hans Sloane, "to see the best method of printing it", but it was never published.
[9] Barham also wrote two papers for the Royal Society: An Account of a Fiery Meteor seen in Jamaica to strike the Earth;[10] and Observations on the Produce of the Silkworm and of Silk in England, 1719, Abrev.
[12] After taking control of Mesopotamia, the younger Barham borrowed from several Kingston merchants, and purchased more slaves to increase the sugar production on his estates.
There, he married again, this time to another wealthy widow from Jamaica, Elizabeth Smith Foster Ayscough, and inherited from her five more Jamaican plantations and 768 slaves, valued at about £34,000.