Joshua Barnes - St Margaret - Hemingford Abbots, Huntindonshire - Coats of Arms on Waymarking.com

Coat of arms on the memorial to Joshua Barnes FRS (10 January 1654 – 3 August 1712), an English scholar, in the chancel of St Margaret's church, Hemingford Abbots.

"Joshua Barnes FRS (10 January 1654 – 3 August 1712), was an English scholar. His work Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies (1675) was an Utopian romance.

Barnes was born in London, the son of Edward Barnes, a merchant taylor. Educated at Christ's Hospital and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he was chosen in 1695 as Regius Professor of Greek, a language which he wrote and spoke with facility.

One of his early publications was Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies (1675), a whimsical sketch to which Swift's Voyage to Lilliput may owe something. Among his other works is a History of that Most Victorious Monarch Edward III (1688), an epic work of over 900 pages, in which he introduces long, elaborate speeches into the narrative. He also produced editions of Euripides (1694), Homer (1711), and Anacreon (1705), of which the last contains titles of Greek verses of his own, which he was hoping to publish. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in November, 1710.

Barnes married a widow named Mrs Mafon in 1700.. Barnes died on 3 August 1712 at Hemingford, near St Ives, Huntingdonshire where his widow erected a monument to him.

The present-day scholar Robert Ignatius Letellier considers Gerania, a work of prose fiction, to have been part of an emerging type of adventure novels, featuring an "imaginary voyage into alien or fictional regions". These combined first-person adventure narratives with either "satirical social observation" or perceptions of ideal human behaviour in remote lands, following a tradition rooted in the Utopia (1516) of Thomas More, which found prominent manifestations in The Blazing World (1666) of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and The Isle of Pines of Henry Neville. The tradition would lead to later works, such as the Robinson Crusoe (1719) of Daniel Defoe."

SOURCE - (visit link)

This is the same coat of arms that can be found in the bookplate of two volumes in St John's College Library, Cambridge (visit link)

Bearer of Coat of Arms: Burgher (used by famous commoner) Full name of the bearer: Joshua Barnes Where is Coat of Arms installed (short description) ?: north wall of chancel Material / Design: Stone Address: St Margaret Church Lane Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire England PE28 9AL Web page about the structure where is Coat of Arms installed (if exists): [Web Link] Web page about the bearer of Coat of Arms (if exists): [Web Link] Blazon (heraldic description): Not listed

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