"The artist William Bligh Barker (1807-62) was the younger of two surviving sons of Henry Aston Barker and Harriet Maria Bligh (m. 1802), eldest daughter of Vice-Admiral William Bligh (of 'Bounty' fame): his name repeats that of his parents' short-tlived first child, 1802-05, who was buried at Lambeth and is commemorated on Bligh's tomb there. Trained as a doctor the second W.B. Barker later became a painter and this lithograph is one of a set of views of Greenwich by him that was published about 1840 by Bellamy of Newington Causeway, Southwark. Another shows the viaduct of the Greenwich railway, opened in 1836, which suggests they are all about that date rather than as early as 1820, which has sometimes been suggested. Barker appears to have inherited some independent means, being noted only as a 'Fundholder' at the 1861 census, when he was lodging in Royal Hill, Greenwich. Although noted as 'married', his wife was not present on the 1861 census night. He appears to have died in Greenwich in late April 1862 since he was buried there on 3 May."—online catalogue of the Royal Museums Greenwich, accessed April 2021
