{{Short description|New Zealand adventurer and writer}} {{infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL | onlysourced=yes}}

thumb|Fin whale collected by Captain William Jackson Barry, displayed in Otago Museum thumb|Fin whale Otago Museum 2010 '''William Jackson Barry''' (1819 &ndash; 23 April 1907) was a New Zealand adventurer and writer. He was born in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, England on 1819,<ref name="DNZB Barry">{{DNZB|title=William Jackson Barry|first= Ronda|last= Cooper|id=1b12|accessdate=23 April 2017}}</ref> and between 1866 and 1868 was Mayor of Cromwell.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov14_07Rail-t1-body-d9.html|title=A Quaint Character of Early Otago — Captain William Jackson Barry {{!}} NZETC|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|access-date=2019-05-04}}</ref>

In 1883, Barry bought a whale skeleton that had beached itself on the sands in Nelson. Barry prepared and exhibited the skeleton at a Nelson store, and then on tour, before arriving in Dunedin. The ''Otago Daily Times'' reported that Barry opened the whale up to public inspection in a warehouse in St Andrews Street, even going so far as to hold a dinner party in its jaws. By August 1883, Barry had sold the fin whale to Otago Museum, where it is still on display.<ref>{{Cite book|title=He Taonga, He Kōrero: The Lives of Colonial Objects|last=Crane|first=Rosi|publisher=Otago University Press|year=2015|location=Dunedin, Otago|chapter=Whale Tales}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Editorial|date=10 July 1883|work=Otago Daily Times }}</ref>

Barry wrote a fantastical autobiography in 1878, ''Up and Down: Or, Fifty Years' Colonial Experiences in Australia, California, New Zealand, India, China, and the South Pacific; Being the Life History of Capt. W. J. Barry''. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, 1878, with portrait of author, and other illustrations."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Up and Down: Or, Fifty Years' Colonial Experiences in Australia, California, New Zealand, India, China, and the South Pacific; Being the Life History of Capt. W. J. Barry|last=Barry|first=William Jackson|publisher=Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington|year=1879|location=Fleet Street, London}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, William Jackson}} Category:1819 births Category:1907 deaths Category:British emigrants to New Zealand Category:19th-century New Zealand writers Category:People from Melbourn

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