[1] In the dedicatory address to Lord Montague, the author tells us that he was born at "Bracemeol in the liberty of Salop (ie Meole Brace in the vicinity of Shrewsbury, Shropshire), "being a freeman and burgess of the same city(sic)".
[1] Barker is described by Hugh Chisholm, in his Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) article on Izaak Walton, as being "a retired cook, and humorist".
[2] At the time of writing his treatise he was living in Westminster, and seems to have gained a livelihood by accompanying gentlemen on fishing expeditions, or giving instruction at home in the use of baits and tackle.
The following invitation in the dedicatory address doubtless met a warm response:— If any noble or gentle angler, of what degree soever he be, have a mind to discourse of any of these wayes and experiments, I live in Henry the 7th's Gifts, the next door to the gatehouse in Westm[inster].
In the words of Barker's 19th century biographer in Dictionary of National Biography, Arthur Henry Bullen: "His directions on catching and dressing fish are equally serviceable; but it is to be regretted that this cheery "brother of the angle" advocated the use of salmon-roe bait, a pernicious doctrine unknown, or at least unpublished, before his time."