John ‘Jacky’ Barrett, 1753–1821
JOHN “JACKY” Barrett, eccentric scholar, was born in Ballyroan, Queen’s County (Laois), son of the Rev Daniel Barrett, Church of Ireland clergyman, and his wife Rossamund Gofton. Educated by a Mr Sheils in Dublin, he entered Trinity College as a pensioner on July 9th 1770; he scarcely ever left it again. He won a scholarship in 1773, graduated BA in 1775 and became a fellow in 1778. He was college librarian (1791-1808), regius professor of Greek (1796-7) and professor of Hebrew and vice-provost (1806-21). He discovered in the library, and edited, an important palimpsest manuscript of St Matthew’s Gospel from a very early date.
His other published works, which included An Inquiry into the Origin of the Constellations that Compose the Zodiac(1800), while displaying his erudition and knowledge of ancient languages, were not of general utility.
He is mainly remembered for his eccentricities: generations of students laughed at Barrett’s meanness and love of food, the filthiness of his person and attire, the extreme frugality of his life in college, his mannerisms, the coarseness of his speech, and his lack of ordinary practical knowledge of the world.
It was said that he failed to recognise a sheep, though he had eaten mutton at commons for 40 years; and that after he appeared decently dressed on Trinity Mondays he would comb the powder out of his hair for reuse the next year. Fellow students saved his life by administering hot punch when they found him near death from hypothermia in his college rooms.
After a lifetime of hoarding money he died on November 14th, 1821, worth about £80,000. Trustees of his will interpreted his legacies to “the hungry” and “the naked” to include near relations who had frequently and in vain implored his charity, and who had received only token bequests in the will.
From the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie for more details
