Family and Early Life
Barrie was born at St. Augustine, Florida on 5 May 1774, the son of Scottish surgeon Dr Robert Barrie of Sanquhar and his wife, Dolly Gardner, the sister of Sir Alan Gardner. His mother returned to England on the death of her husband in 1775, and settled in Preston, Lancashire. She remarried in 1784, while her son was schooled at Neston, Cheshire, and later at Dedham. Between 1784 and 1788, he was carried on the books of HMS Europa as a servant to the captain (his uncle, Alan Gardner) but most likely his first shipboard service was as a junior midshipman on HMS Goliath.
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