John Barrow was an English mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, naval historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 and lexicographer

Lexicography

Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....

.

Nothing is known of Barrow's family. He was initially a teacher of mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and navigation

Navigation

Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...

 aboard ships of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. He retired before 1750 and devoted himself to writing and compiling dictionaries and other works related to his knowledge of mathematics and science. Many appeared in multiple editions and were translated and read in Europe, for instance by Napoleon.

Barrow's best-known work was Navigatio Britannica (1750), a practical handbook of navigation and charts still being advertised by its publisher, Mount & Page

Mount & Page

Mount & Page was a firm of religious and maritime publishers that flourished in the 18th century. The name became well-known worldwide as an imprint of nautical charts....

, in 1787. It included an examination of nautical instruments and explained the recently introduced vernier scale

Vernier scale

A vernier scale is an additional scale which allows a distance or angle measurement to be read more precisely than directly reading a uniformly-divided straight or circular measurement scale...

. Barrow seems to have been in close touch with nautical instrument makers while he was a naval instructor. It was not realized until the 20th century that John Barrow the "geographical compiler" mentioned in the British Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

(1885 onwards) and the teacher of mathematics were the same person.

Selected works

• Dictionarium polygraphicum (1735)
• Dictionarium medicum universale (1749)
• Navigatio Britannia (1750)
• New and Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1751)
• The Naval History of Great Britain (4 vols, 1758)
• Geographical Dictionary (2 vols, 1759–60)
• A New and Impartial History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Signing of Preliminaries of Peace, 1762 (1763)
• Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1764)
• A Collection of Authentic, Useful, and Entertaining Voyages and Discoveries (3 vols, 1765)