Family and Education

1st s. of John Barker I of Ipswich by his 1st w. m. (1) Judith, da. of George Stoddart of London and Mottingham, Kent, 2s. 1da.; (2) Susan, da. of John Crofts of Saxham, 6 or 7s. 3da. suc. fa. 1589. KB 1603.1

Offices Held

Chamberlain of Ipswich 1587, bailiff 1590-1, Chamberlain 1596-7, j.p. 1591, 1597; j.p. Suff. 1601, sheriff 1614-15.2

Biography

Like his father and grandfather, Barker was active in Ipswich local government and represented the borough in Parliament. He was almost certainly not the ‘Mr. Barker’ referred to in the journals of the 1593 Parliament. About 1597 he bought Grimston Hall, eight miles away, and went to live there. He inherited other lands in Suffolk from his father, and also acquired further property in Suffolk and Essex. Knighted—indeed made KB, as it appears—at James’s coronation, he became sheriff of his county. He died 8 Oct. 1618 and his will was proved the following 6 Dec. He then owed £2,000 to Sir Paul Bayning, supervisor of the will, £600 to Sir William Craven and £100 to Sir Thomas Cottells. He had made provision for his children by the terms of a conveyance to Thomas, his eldest son by his second wife, and joint executor with her. The eldest son of Barker’s first marriage, John, was not mentioned.3

There was another Robert Barker, brother-in-law of John More II of Ipswich, who with More was a puritan leader in the town, and acted as a business partner of William Cardinall II, the patron of the Dedham classis. This namesake, probably the man who was selling cloth in Antwerp as More’s factor in 1568, may have been the chamberlain of Ipswich in 1575: he was aged 30 in 1572.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.H.

Notes

• 1. Vis. Suff. ed. Metcalfe, 112; W. A. Copinger, Suff. Manors, ii. 339; PCC 60 Leicester.
• 2. N. Bacon, Ipswich Annals, 306, 352, 360, 364, 382, 386.
• 3. Copinger, iii. 41, 99, 102, 106; Al. Cant. i(1), p. 87; PCC 123 Meade.
• 4. G. Unwin, Studies in Tudor Economic Hist. ed. Tawney, 275-6; Collinson thesis, 787, 864-6.