Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet, FRS, FRGS, FSA (19 June 1764 – 23 November 1848) was an English geographer, linguist, writer and civil servant best known for serving as the Second Secretary to the Admiralty from 1804 until 1845.

[2] Barrow ceased to be officially connected with Chinese affairs after the return of the embassy in 1794, but he always took much interest in them, and on critical occasions was frequently consulted by the British government.

[2] Some historians attribute the 'stagnation thesis' to Barrow; that China was an extremely civilized nation that was in a process of decay by the time of European contact.

[4] In 1797, Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney as private secretary in his mission to settle the government of the newly acquired colony of the Cape of Good Hope.

[4] William John Burchell (1781–1863) was particularly scathing: "As to the miserable thing called a map, which has been prefixed to Mr. Barrow’s quarto, I perfectly agree with Professor Lichtenstein, that it is so defective that it can seldom be found of any use.

"[citation needed] Barrow returned to Britain in 1804 and was appointed Second Secretary to the Admiralty by Viscount Melville, a post which he held for forty years[2] – apart from a short period in 1806–1807 when there was a Whig government in power.

[7][3] He is also remembered for infamously declaring the newly invented electrical telegraph as being "wholly unnecessary" and greatly delaying its proposed adoption by the admiralty.

Some historians regard Barrow as an instrument of imperialism who portrayed Africa as a resource rich land devoid of any human or civilized elements.

[4] His renewal of Arctic voyages in search of the Northwest Passage and the Open Polar Sea has also been criticized, with author Fergus Fleming remarking that "perhaps no other man in the history of exploration has expended so much money and so many lives in so desperately pointless a dream".