Nephew of the London bankers David and John Barclay.

Traveled to France with his cousin David Barclay (1784).

Son of Daniel and Catherine (Barclay) Bell of Tottenham.

First letter in correspondence: July 29, 1785; Charles W. Barclay, A History of the Barclay Family . . . (3 vols., London, 1924), i, xx-xxi, iii, 243.