Background
Barham was the eldest son of the musician and writer Thomas Foster Barham. He was born at Hendon, in Middlesex, and sent to Queens" College, Cambridge, qualifying as Bachelor of Medicine in 1820.
Barham was the eldest son of the musician and writer Thomas Foster Barham. He was born at Hendon, in Middlesex, and sent to Queens" College, Cambridge, qualifying as Bachelor of Medicine in 1820.
After taking this degree he returned to Penzance in Cornwall, where he was physician to the dispensary, and in general practice for several years. About 1830 he moved to Exeter in Devon and became physician to the Exeter dispensary and institution for the blind. After a time he expressed an aversion to all dogmatic theology, as well as to the adoption of any sectarian name, and embodied his views on these points in a pamphlet entitled Christian Union in Churches without Dogmatism.
He moved to Newton Abbot, where he conducted religious service for himself, adhering in the main to the religious tenets of his old section
Being possessed of considerable means, he abandoned the practice of medicine on his removal from Exeter, and gave himself up to good works and the pleasures of literature. He died at Highweek, near Newton Abbot, 3 March 1869, and was buried in Highweek churchyard on 8 March.