Barclay like William Penn was charged with doubtful relations with James II. They both believed him sincere in his professed regard for religious liberty; they both felt for him a real, though it seems to us an unmerited regard. He showed them both special kindness, and listened to their pleas for their brethren and for others. George Fox writes to Barclay in 1686:--"Friends were very sensible of the great service thou hadst concerning the truth with the king and all the court; and that thou hadst their ear more than any Friend when here." But it must not be supposed that they were therefore indifferent to the constitutional principles at stake. (See sketch of Penn.) There is a curious disproof of this in a hint conveyed in the Friends' address to the king on his Declaration of Indulgence, drawn up by the Yearly Meeting of 1687, when it is almost certain that Barclay was present and must have concurred. "We hope," they say, "the good effects thereof may produce such a concurrence from the parliament as will secure it to our posterity." This influence at court caused Robert Barclay often to be wanted in London, and he seems to have been a constant attender of the Yearly Meetings up to 1688. In 1685 we are told that Barclay was again in London at the Yearly Meeting, and employed himself in many acts of kindness. Charles II. had died on the 6th of February, and James at once ascended to the throne. If Barclay had been anxious for the royal favour, as some asserted, he would at once have gone to court to salute the rising sun. Instead, we find him going simply to the May gatherings of his brethren, and only at a later date seeking the royal presence on behalf of others. In 1686 he repeated his visit on the same errand and took part with George Whitehead in an appeal to the king, which resulted in the liberation of 1200 Friends. Whitehead says he took Barclay with him, "the king having a particular respect for him from the knowledge he had of him in Scotland;" but Whitehead seems to have been the chief speaker. In the end the king granted a commission to the attorney-general, Sir R. Sawyer, to issue warrants to release all whom he could legally discharge as the king's prisoners, which through George Whitehead's energy was thoroughly carried out.