Robert Barrow (1630 - 1697)

Robert Barrow

Robert Barrow was an American Quaker missionary, traveler, and writer.

Barrow participated in a voyage led by a Quaker trader from Jamaica, Jonathan Dickinson (1663-1722), traveling from Kingston to Philadelphia, but ran aground on the east coast of Florida. They were captured several times by the natives of the region. In March 1696, Jonathan Dickinson and his family and Robert Barrow sailed from Charles Town and reached Philadelphia fourteen days later. On April 4, 1697, three days after arriving in Philadelphia, Robert Barrow died.

Dickinson's account of their capture, release, and subsequent rescue by the Spanish was published in 1699 in Philadelphia under the title God's Patronizing Providence. The book became a bestseller. Robert Barrow had time to write his account of the adventure after their rescue by the Spanish governor of St. Augustine, who provided them with a canoe to take them to the English settlements in South Carolina.