The name Nelson HORATIO Barbour for the editor of The Herald of the Morning comes from the patent of one of his inventions. His history is sketchy and what could be discovered at the time was published in Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet by Schulz and De Vienne in 2009.
We know that he was a gold prospector in Australia and came back to American via Britain around 1859/1860. I spent some considerable time trying to find anyone resembling Nelson Horatio Barbour on ships lists and the UK census for 1861. Eventually I found a Nelson Horatio Barber in the UK – born in same decade, but this man was married with a child. I traced his life story sufficiently to establish there was no connection. A secret marriage and an abandoned family would have been a real find! But why would two men of similar age be named Nelson Horatio Barber/Barbour? And then it clicked. The British commander at the Battle of Trafalgar, with a huge column in London to this day was Admiral Nelson - full name Horatio Nelson. The two names would just naturally go together in public consciousness.
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