Sir Thomas Barrington, 2nd Baronet

Sir Thomas Barrington, 2nd Baronet, 1585 to 18 September 1644, was an English politician and Puritan activist who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1644. In the early stages of the First English Civil War, he helped establish the Eastern Association, one of the most effective elements of the Parliamentarian army.

Sir
Thomas Barrington
Barrington Hall, Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex
Member of Parliament
for Colchester
In office
November 1640  September 1644
Member of Parliament
for Essex
In office
April 1640  April 1640
Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Essex
In office
1629–1643
Member of Parliament
for Newtown
In office
January 1621  March 1629
Personal details
Born1585
Barrington Hall, Essex
Died18 September 1644(1644-09-18) (aged 59)
London
Resting placeSt Mary the Virgin, Hatfield Broad Oak
NationalityEnglish
Spouse(s)Frances Gobert (1611-1623)
Judith Lytton, (1624-his death)
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge
OccupationLandowner, politician and Puritan activist

Family

Thomas Barrington was born in 1585, eldest son of Sir Francis Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex (1560-1628) and Joan Cromwell (c.1568-1641), aunt to the future Parliamentarian leaders Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden.[1] One of nine surviving children, he had three brothers; Robert (?-1642), Francis (?-before 1628) [2] and John (?-1631), who died in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years War.[3]

Of his five sisters, Elizabeth was married to Sir William Masham, and Mary to Sir Gilbert Gerard, Winifred to Sir William Meux.[4] All three of his brothers-in-law were MPs, as were his father and brother Thomas, making the Barrington family part of a network of Puritan activists.[5]

In 1611, he married Frances Gobert (died 1623); they had three surviving children, Lucy, John (1615-1683) and Gobert (before 1623-c.1695). He married again in 1624, this time to Judith Lytton (c.1592-1657);[lower-alpha 1] they had no children before his death in 1644.[6]

Career

Barrington attended Trinity College, Cambridge in 1601. As legal training was then considered an essential part of education, he studied law at Gray's Inn in 1602. He was knighted in about 1621, and the same year was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Newtown. He was re-elected for the constituency in 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.[7] In 1628, he succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father. Barrington has been identified as part of the so-called "Middle Group" within Parliament, led by Pym until his death in December 1643, then by Oliver St John. Unlike the "War" or "Peace" factions, these MPs did not vote consistently, but they were prominent in persuading Parliament to approve the Solemn League and Covenant, an alliance with the Scots Covenanters.[8]

Footnotes

  1. Her age when she died in 1657 was given as 65 [6]

References

Sources



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