Background
He was born in 1790 in Dorsetshire, England, son of Thomas, a descendant of the Stropham family of Bartletts.
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John Sherren Bartlett
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He pursued medical studies in London under the direction of Sir Astley Cooper.
Career
He was appointed an assistant surgeon in the British navy in 1812. Assigned to the packet Swallow bound for Jamaica, he became an American prisoner when that ship was captured by Commodore Rodgers cruising with the frigates President and Congress in search of the enemy's vessels.
Although held as a prisoner in Boston for several months before being exchanged, he experienced much kindness and hospitality there. In turn his was the pleasure, combined with duty, in the latter part of the war, to attend to the wounds of American naval prisoners, including the officers and crew of the Chesapeake, at Halifax. The war over, he was satisfied to remain on American soil and set up his physician's sign in friendly Boston. It was as a journalist, however, that Bartlett was to gain his reputation. He conceived the idea of establishing an English newspaper in the United States, a journal which should give to British residents on this continent a true exposition of public affairs, and a general view of the news, politics, and literature of the United Kingdom, and which would aim "to preserve the peace and good understanding between the United States and Great Britain. " He thought New York the best center for such a publication and the first issue of the Albion appeared there, June 22, 1822.
For over a quarter of a century he continued its publication, always contending successfully that "a love for England was not incompatible with respect and regard for this country" (Albion, May 6, 1848). At the time when England was claiming her exclusive right to the Oregon territory and the Democrats of the United States were shouting "Fifty-four forty or fight, " Bartlett insisted that both parties had rights, and that nothing but a calm and dispassionate examination of them, with a determination mutually to admit these rights, was necessary to a happy issue of the affair. The paper resembled the modern tabloid in its convenient size but in no other respect. It appealed to the reading public because of its reports of naval intelligence from Portsmouth, of police news from Bow St. , of the new plays at the London theatres, of the proceedings of Parliament, and of the high literary quality of the contributed articles.
To Bartlett must be given credit for introducing Indian corn into England. Besides pointing out in the Albion the excellence of the maize as a cheap and wholesome article of diet for the poor, he circulated several pamphlets emphasizing its value and giving directions for preparing and cooking it.
Another publication, the European, was begun by Bartlett with the opening of the Cunard Line, in 1840. The paper was printed in Liverpool, containing the latest news from Europe, and forwarded to America at each sailing. The editor's ill health forced him to abandon this enterprise at the end of eighteen months, but it was continued as Willmer's European Times. Another breakdown in health caused him to retire from the editorship of the Albion, May 6, 1848. In 1847, he was president of the St. George's Society of New York and, ten years later, on the death of the British consul in Baltimore, he was put in charge of the consulate for a time. During his last years he was a resident of New York City and Middletown Point, New Jersey.
