Robert Barclay was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

 and a member of the Clan Barclay

Clan Barclay

-Origins of the clan:Since the eighteenth century, Barclay historians, noted for their low level in medieval scholarship, have assumed the Scottish family Barclay is a branch of one of the Anglo-Norman Berkeley family of Berkeley in Gloucestershire...

. He was also governor of the East Jersey

East Jersey

The Province of East Jersey and the Province of West Jersey were two distinct, separately governed parts of the Province of New Jersey that existed as separate provinces for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. East Jersey's capital was located at Perth Amboy...

 colony in North America through most of the 1680s, although he himself never resided in the colony.
Barclay was born at Gordonstoun

Gordonstoun

Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray in North East Scotland. Named after the estate originally owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 1600s, the school now uses this estate as its campus...

 in Moray

Moray

Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...

, Scotland. His father Col. David Barclay of Urie

David Barclay (Quaker)

Col. David Barclay , of Mathers, St Cyrus, Kincardineshire in Scotland, was 1st Laird of Urie near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland, and father of Robert Barclay, the eminent Quaker apologist...

 had served under Gustavus Adolphus, and pursued a somewhat tortuous course through the troubles of the civil war

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

.