Wallop, Barton (1745-1781), Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

Master of Magdalene College, 1774-1781

Born on 3 Jan 1745, the third son of John, Viscount Lymington (son of John Wallop, 1st Earl of Portsmouth) and Catherine Conduit (great niece of Issac Newton)
His eldest brother John Wallop, succeeded his grandfather and became the 2nd Earl of Portsmouth. John’s son and therefore Barton’s nephew was John Charles Wallop 3rd Earl of Portsmouth (subject of two Lunacy Commissions)

School - Eton

Admitted as a Fellow Commoner (aged 18) to Magdalene College on 5 Nov 1762
Matriculated Michaelmas 1764; M.A. 1766

Rector of Portsmouth
Rector of Cliddesden with Farleigh, Hampshire

Master of Magdalene, 1774-81
Vice-Chancellor, 1774-75

Married 14 May 1771, his cousin, Camilla Powlett, daughter of the Rev. Richard Smyth, of Crux-Easton, Hampshire
Children:
(1) Urania Catharine Camilla, born 23 November 1774
(2) Postumous son William Barton Wallop – on the 15th Dragoons, and then Captain in the Nova Scotia Fencibles. On 11 Sept 1807 he married Miss Ward of St John’s in New Brunswick, North America

Died 1 Sept 1781, at Upper Wallop

From: A History of Magdalene College, Cambridge 1428-1988

Thomas Chapman (Master) died in 1760 (either of a fever or of gluttony having eaten 5 mackerel followed later by a turbot resulting in ‘a violent looseness’ which carried him off’).

At the time the Visitor was Elizabeth, Countess of Portsmouth (daughter of James Griffin, 2nd Baron Griffin of Braybrooke). By her 2nd marriage she married John Wallop , 1st Earl of Portsmouth (also his 2nd marriage).

Her step-grandson was Barton Wallop who in 1760 was aged 16 and at Eton.

On the death of the Master Thomas Chapman the Fellows decided they wanted the current President, Lawrence Eliot, to be elected Master and they got the backing of the other Heads of Houses. But Elizabeth had promised the vacancy to her step-grandson Barton. He was only 16 so she appointed George Sandby on condition that he gave up the Mastership in favour of Barton when she or her heirs asked. This bond was witnessed by the College cook and butler. He served as Master from 1760 until 1774.

Barton ‘that pretty young gentleman’ was admitted to the College as a Fellow-Commoner in 1762 though he did not matriculate until 1764 and he did not reside [he is in the Butlers books having spent money on sizings at the buttery so I dispute this]. He took an honorary MA in July 1766 and was elected to a Goche fellowship the same day.

He seemed little interested in College affairs busying himself with hunting and shooting, financed by a series of Hampshire livings in the gift of his family including the rectory of Portsmouth.

Elizabeth Griffin died in 1762 but had secured an undertaking from her heir, Sir John Griffin, to honour the promise to Barton and so in April 1774 Sandby was asked to resign.
Barton was now married and aged 29 which was the minimum statutory age for appointment to the Mastership and had declared himself ‘very desirous’ to take it up.

The appointment caused consternation in the College and Cambridge as Barton’s crass ignorance and rackety life-style were well-known, and Magdalene was due to provide the next Vice-Chancellor. The prospect of such a man as head of the university was appalling. In late 1773 Archbishop Cornwallis and the Chancellor had tried to buy Barton off with a swap of preferment, and to secure the Mastership instead for the newly-appointed Regius Prof of Divinity Bishop Watson so he could live in Cambridge with a ‘dignity becoming the prof of Divinity’.
Barton refused to co-operate.
The Archbishop said ‘he will, I think, disgrace both himself and the University’, and the University expressed their displeasure by refusing to grant the honorary DD customarily granted to incoming heads of house.

Attempts were made to get him to waive his turn as vice-chancellor but he insisted on performing the office. He resided in Cambridge from the beginning of March – end of July 1775 and again for the most of Michaelmas term. Then when his round of duty was finished he took himself off to his country estates and for the rest of his Mastership was rarely seen in Cambridge.

Day to day affairs were carried out by the President and tutors.

On 1 September 1781 Barton died suddenly at his country house in Upper Wallop, as a result of ‘faintings and violent oppressions on his stomach’ possibly caused by his heavy drinking.

He was succeeded by Peter Peckard.