BARKER, Sir Robert (?1732-89), of Busbridge, Surr.

In 1774 Barker resigned his post as provincial commander-in-chief, Bengal, after a disagreement with Hastings. Returning to England with, according to John Scott, a ‘very large fortune’,Debrett, xvi. 102. he was returned at the general election of 1774 for the corrupt and expensive borough of Wallingford. In Parliament he consistently supported North’s Administration. There is no record of his having spoken in the House, and he does not seem to have stood again.

He died 14 Sept. 1789, aged 57. In his obituary notice, the Gentleman’s Magazine writes (1789, p. 956), that he was ‘no less distinguished in philosophy than in war’, and lists several scientific papers communicated by him to the Royal Society, of which he was a member.