John Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington

He received part of his education at the University of Utrecht between 1694 and 1698 and, after returning to England, studied law in the Inner Temple.

On the recommendation of Lord Somers he was employed to encourage the Presbyterians in Scotland to support the union of the two kingdoms, and in 1708 he was rewarded for this service by being appointed to the office of commissioner of the customs.

One was left by a distant family connection, Francis Barrington of Tofts, whose name he assumed by act of parliament in 1710,[3] and the other by an admirer John Wildman of Beckett Hall at Shrivenham, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire).

[1][2] At the 1715 general election Barrington was returned unopposed as Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed with another dissenter Grey Neville.

[2] In 1725, Barrington published his principal work, entitled Miscellanea Sacra or a New Method of considering so much of the History of the Apostles as is contained in Scripture,—afterwards reprinted with additions and corrections, in 1770, by his son Shute.