Background
Barrow was the son of Isaac Barrow of Spinney Abbey, Wickham, Cambridgeshire, a landowner and justice of the peace for over forty years.
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Isaac Barrow
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Peterhouse.
Career
In July 1629 he was admitted to Peterhouse, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1635. Thereafter, he served as a chaplain at New College, Oxford, until the surrender of Oxford to the Parliamentary army in 1646. Following the Restoration (and by now a Doctor of Divinity), Barrow received back his fellowship at Peterhouse and was appointed a Fellow of Eton College on 12 July 1660.
In 1660 he was also presented to the rectory of Downham, in the diocese of Ely.
In July 1663, having resigned his fellowship of Peterhouse in the previous year, he was consecrated bishop of Sodor and Manitoba In April 1664, the Earl of Derby also appointed him Governor of the Isle of Manitoba
During his brief residence there he acquired a liberal and reforming reputation, establishing schools and improving the livings of the impoverished clergy. Returning to England for the sake of his health, Barrow lived at Cross-Hall, in Lathom, Lancashire, a house belonging to the Stanley family.
On 21 March 1669, he was translated to the bishopric of Street Asaph, but he was permitted to hold the see of Sodor and Manitoba in commendam until October 1671, in order to defray the expenses of his translation.
At Street Asaph, he again displayed energy and zeal, carrying out substantial repairs to the cathedral church and the episcopal palace, as well as building in 1673 an alms-house for eight poor widows. He died at Shrewsbury in 1680 before his plans for a free-school at Street Asaph came to fruition, but his successor received two hundred pounds from his executors to that education Barrow did not marry.
He is buried in the Cathedral churchyard at Saint Asaph, where his tomb stone was the cause of some theological controversy.
