Remembering Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825 20-viii-1874)

[John Upham]

Remembering Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825 20-viii-1874)

https://britishchessnews.com/2026/08/19 ... viii-1874/

Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825 20-viii-1874)

Thomas_Wilson_Barnes.jpg (23.03 KiB) Viewed 311 times

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Why is he considered English, since it seems he was born in County Armagh, Ireland?

[John Upham]

Why is he considered English, since it seems he was born in County Armagh, Ireland?

May I see your evidence please?

I'm not doubting it but have not seen that evidence as yet.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The only census I could find him in is that of 1871:

ThomasWilsonBarnes1871Census.png (560.33 KiB) Viewed 263 times

John Townsend seems to have found evidence that he was born in Armagh and indeed studied in Ireland:

The Middle Temple had at least one other very fine chessplayer, Thomas Wilson Barnes. Born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, he had obtained his M.A. at Trinity College, Dublin in the summer of 1851 (source: Alumni Dublinenses, 1924, page 41)

see https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter142.html

I suspect that the baptism of a Thomas Wilson Barnes on the 11th August, 1825, in Newry, County Down, was the future chess player, because his father is given as "John Barnes of County Armagh".
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rosdavi ... /B/Bar.htm
This also mentions a brother, George Barnes, born around 1824.

Findagrave gives a date of birth for Thomas Wilson Barnes of 12th February, 1825, but I can't find any sources for that.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/222 ... son-barnes

Thomas Wilson Barnes on Family Search:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pe ... s/GKXP-RMP

[John Upham]

This looks to be pretty strong evidence.

I've no idea why Hooper described TWB as English.

To be fair to Hooper, researching this stuff was much, much harder in the 1960s and 1970s.