John Henry Barrow was a Congregational

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 minister, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and South Australian politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

.

Early life

Barrow was born in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, son of John Barrow. After he studied for the Congregational ministry at Hackney College, he took charge of the Congregational Church at Market Drayton

Market Drayton

Market Drayton is a small market town in north Shropshire, England. It is on the River Tern, between Shrewsbury and Stoke-on-Trent, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" and earlier simply as "Drayton" ....

 in Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, where he also ran a school. He was then transferred to Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 where he began writing for the Bradford Observer.

Career in Australia

Barrow went to Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 in 1851 with his family and obtained a position in the office of the South Australian Register

South Australian Register

The Register, originally the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, was the first South Australian newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836 and folded almost a century later in February 1931....

. He also did work on the literary side and, when Andrew Garran

Andrew Garran

Andrew Garran , English-Australian journalist and politician, was the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald from 1873 to 1885....

 went to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, succeeded him as principal leader writer. He began preaching at Kensington, South Australia

Kensington, South Australia

Kensington is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters. Unlike the rest of the city, Kensington's streets are laid out diagonally in order to follow Second Creek....

 and the Clayton Chapel was built for him, but though an excellent preacher, Barrow was unsure whether his real work lay in church life, and he resigned his pastorate in 1858 to enter the South Australian House of Assembly

South Australian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...

 as the member for East Torrens.

Also in 1858 Barrow left the Register to become editor and manager of the newly established The Advertiser whose first issue appeared on 12 July 1858. The first number of the Weekly Chronicle came out a five days later, and in 1863 the Express was started as an evening paper. Though these papers were conducted with ability, the controlling company did not prosper, and it was wound up in 1864. The papers passed into the hands of a proprietary of eight persons of whom Barrow was one, and in 1871 Barrow and Thomas King became the sole proprietors. Barrow was editor of the Advertiser until he fell into ill-health a few months before his death.

The editing of a newspaper is a sufficiently exacting piece of work for most people, but Barrow was a man of tireless energy and contrived also to carry out the duties of a member of parliament during nearly the whole of this period. He did not seek re-election for the assembly in 1860 but in 1861 became a member of the South Australian Legislative Council

South Australian Legislative Council

The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly...

. In 1870 he was one of the South Australian delegates to the intercolonial conference held at Melbourne. In 1871 he resigned from the council, and the following year was returned to the Assembly for Sturt

Sturt

Sturt is a surname, and may refer to:* Charles Sturt , an English explorer of Australia* George Sturt , an English writer on rural crafts and affairs who also wrote under the pseudonym George Bourne* Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington...

. He joined the seventh Henry Ayers

Henry Ayers

Sir Henry Ayers GCMG was Premier of South Australia five times between 1863 and 1873, but is perhaps best remembered for having Uluru/Ayers Rock named for him.- Overview :...

ministry as Treasurer in March 1872, holding the position until Ayers resigned in July 1873.

Late life

In mid-1873, Barrow's health declined, and though he went to the intercolonial conference at Sydney as one of the South Australian delegates in the hope that change of scene might lead to its improvement, it continued to deteriorate; he died in Adelaide on 22 August 1874 of an effusion on the brain. He was married twice and left a widow, three sons and three daughters. Barrow left behind him a reputation in his own time as a speaker and journalist.