Edward Barnwell

Edward Lowry Barnwell (1813 – 9 August 1887) was a British antiquarian and schoolmaster who was headmaster of Ruthin School, Denbighshire for 26 years. Life Edward Barnwell was the third son of Charles Frederick Barnwell, a former Fellow of Cauis College, Cambridge. His father was descended from the Barnwells of Mileham, Norfolk. His mother was the daughter of Rev. John Lowry, Rector of Clogherny in County Tyrone and had connections with the Irish aristocracy and the Perrot family of Herefordshire. He was educated at Bath Grammar School and then in a school at Greenwich which had been established by Dr Charles Burney. He went up to Balliol College, Oxford and gained a first class degree in Mathematics. In 1836 he was awarded a Scholarship at Jesus College, Oxford and was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford, before becoming a curate at Malvern. He was appointed headmaster of Dean Goodman’s Ruthin School in 1839. In 1846 Barnwell married Matilda, daughter of the Rev C J Chapman, of St Peter Mancroft Norwich. Barnwell was headmaster of Ruthin School for 26 years and retired in 1865. In 1866 he purchased Melksham House in Melksham, Wiltshire. In the Forest area of that town he financed a new church, St Andrew’s, and contributed towards the cost of a new rectory and parish school. Cambrian Archaeological Association Barnwell was a founding member of the Cambrian Archaeological Association at the Aberystwyth meeting in 1847. He served as the joint general secretary from 1855 to 1875, and as Treasurer from 1875 to 1884; in that year he was made a Vice President of the Society in recognition of his long service. Between 1855 and 1884 he contributed 102 articles and notes on a wide range of subjects to Archaeologia Cambrensis.