(389) Barkham of South and West Acre, Wainfleet and Tottenham, baronets

Barkham of South Acre and
Wainfleet, baronets

The story of the Barkhams begins, like so many other families, with a successful and rich Tudor merchant who invested in land and whose children joined the ranks of the gentry. But it is also a case study in how easily, in the disease-ridden 'killing time' of the late 17th and early 18th century, a family's male line could fail, its titles expire and its estates be scattered.

Sir Edward Barkham (c.1551-1634), kt., was the younger son of Edward Barkham (d. 1599) of South Acre (Norfk), yeoman. Like so many younger sons he was sent to London to try his luck in trade, but it would seem that his family lacked the means or the connections to enroll him as an apprentice with an established merchant, and he is said to have begun life as a street pedlar, selling hobby-horses (toys for children). Little is known of his early career, but it is clear that he quickly established himself on a more secure business footing and made money. He became involved in international trade and invested heavily in overseas trading companies, including the Virginia Company. He became a member of one of the smaller Livery Companies, the Leathersellers, and served as one of the two Sheriffs of London in 1611-12, but to achieve his ultimate goal of being Lord Mayor, he had to transfer to one of the twelve great livery companies which controlled the mayoralty, and after protracted negotiations he joined the Drapers Company and was duly elected as Lord Mayor in 1621-22 and as Master of the Drapers in 1622-23. The high price the Drapers exacted for his admission may be reflected in the charitable donations he made to the Company's charities in his will.

Sir Edward (he was knighted, as is traditional, during his term as Lord Mayor) was sufficiently advanced on his upwardly mobile trajectory by 1589 to marry the daughter of a Hertfordshire gentleman, and by 1597 he had bought the manor of Wainfleet St Mary (Lincs) and begun enlarging his estate there through a series of small purchases of land. In about 1610, he followed this up by buying an estate at Tottenham (Middx), which became his main residence, although he may also have used a house at Wainfleet from time to time. As his wealth continued to accumulate in the 1620s, Sir Edward also bought the manors of South Acre - the village where he had been born - and West Acre (both Norfk), in what must have been a satisfying demonstration of the rise in his social status. When he died in 1634, Sir Edward had two surviving sons, and he divided his property between them. The elder, Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667), 1st bt., received South & West Acre, while the younger, Sir Robert Barkham (1599-1661), kt., received Wainfleet and the Tottenham property (although after his death the Tottenham property was sold to his brother).

Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667) had been created a baronet in his father's lifetime, around the time that his father's municipal career had peaked with the Lord Mayoralty and his Mastership of the Drapers. The suspicion must be that his father would have been offered a baronetcy if his origins had not been so clearly plebeian, but since he failed the test of gentility at birth, the baronetcy was instead conferred on his eldest son, who had been born into wealth and educated as a gentleman at Cambridge and Lincoln's Inn. It is not clear whether he ever practiced as a lawyer, but he became a JP in Norfolk and was High Sheriff there in 1635-36, at the time when Charles I's levying of Ship Money, collected through the sheriffs, made the office more than usually onerous. It was perhaps this experience which inclined Sir Edward to side with the Parliamentarians during the Civil War, and he held a number of local offices throughout the Commonwealth, including service on the County Committee. In 1638, he rebuilt the church at West Acre, and it was perhaps at about the same time that he built a new house there (the predecessor of the present High House), which probably replaced the moated manor house at South Acre as the centre of the estate.

When Sir Edward Barkham died in 1667 he left three surviving sons, and like his father, he divided his property between them. The eldest, Sir Edward Barkham (1628-88), 2nd bt., received West Acre and South Acre. William (1639-95), later the 3rd baronet, received the Tottenham property, and the youngest, John (1642-70), who was in partnership with William as a mercer in London, received some houses and commercial property in Moorfields near the city. When Sir Edward died in 1688 he left no male heir, and he divided his property between his widow, Frances (d. 1706), who received South Acre, and his daughter Eleanor (1670-c.1728), the wife of Charles Yallop alias Spelman, who received West Acre. Frances and her second husband, Lord Cramond, settled South Acre on his daughter and her husband, who sold it in 17o3 to Andrew Fountaine of Narford Hall.  The Yallops' moiety of the estate passed in due course to their son, the eccentric self-taught classicist, writer and translator, Edward Spelman (d. 1767), who rebuilt the house in a brief period of prosperity, but sold it in 1761 when he ran into acute financial difficulties.

Sir Edward's brother, William Barkham (1639-95), succeeded him as 3rd baronet in 1688. It is not clear how long he continued in business as a London merchant after the death of his younger brother John in 1670, but seems to have divided his time between the family's Tottenham house and a property at East Walton (Norfk) which he may have bought or which may have been split off from his elder brother's adjacent Norfolk estate. At his death in 1695 he had no surviving son, so the baronetcy expired and his property passed to his daughters and it seems all to have been sold within the next few years.

The younger son of the first Sir Edward Barkham, Sir Robert Barkham (1599-1661), kt., received his father's Tottenham and Wainfleet estates. Although he was knighted in 1641, he seems to have followed the Parliamentarian path in the Civil War (indeed, one of his daughters married the son of a regicide). When he died, his Tottenham property was sold to his brother, Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667), 1st bt., but his Wainfleet estate descended to his eldest son, Edward Barkham (1631-69), who was created a baronet in July 1661, just a few months after his father's death. He died just a few years later, when the Wainfleet estate and the baronetcy passed to his young son, Sir Robert Barkham (1657-1700), 2nd bt. He came of age in 1678 and in the following year married the daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Jeffery, who brought him property at Earls Croome (Worcs) and Wigtoft (Lincs). For reasons which are obscure, they lived at none of the places they had inherited, but at Great Rollright in Oxfordshire. When he died Sir Robert was succeeded by his son, Sir Edward Barkham (1680-1711), 3rd bt., who married a Lincolnshire heiress, and seems to have lived in that county, although he was buried at Tottenham. He and his wife had no issue, so his Wainfleet estate passed to his second cousin once removed, Edward Barkham (1673-1733), who lived in the Cathedral close at Lincoln. When he died, also without issue, he bequeathed his scattered rural Lincolnshire properties, including Wainfleet, to the Bethlem mental hospital in London to support their care of the incurably insane, by whose plight he had evidently been touched. It remained in the Hospital's possession until about 1919.

South Acre Hall, Norfolk

The site of the house occupied by the Barkham family and their predecessors as lords of the manor is now marked only by two moated platforms, sited a few yards downstream from Castle Acre Priory on the opposite side of the infant River Nar. Both the moated sites contain the visible remains of substantial masonry structures, including buildings, and in the area between them are the buried remains of another building, which has been identified as a free chapel built by the Harsicks for their private use before 1387. The western of the two moats, which is normally still flooded, was crossed by a bridge at the eastern end of its southern arm, and contains earthworks towards its southern side which contain fragments of flint rubble masonry and exposed wall footings up to a metre thick, representing the remains of buildings set around a rectangular, walled courtyard.

The eastern moat is now dry and partially silted, but was originally approached by a causeway on its western side. Within the moat, the outlines of parts of two large buildings can be traced, defined by flint rubble wall footings and by earthen mounds covering fallen and upstanding masonry. The larger of the two buildings occupies the central and western part of the moated site, facing the causeway, and was probably an E-plan manor house of the 16th century, about 100 feet in length, with a central block 23 feet wide set at a slight angle to the moat, and wings projecting on its west side at either end, Another, smaller extension some 20x13 ft projects eastwards from the southern end of the central block, and may represent a staircase added to the original house. The rectangular second building on the platform stands immediately south east of this extension, is on a similar alignment, and measured about 80x24 ft; it was perhaps a barn or stable block. No visual record of this house, which was probably taken down after it was sold to the Fountaines of Narford Hall in 1703, if not earlier, appears to survive. By 1807, when Francis Blomefield described the site, there seems to have been no more left of the house than there is today. The name South Acre Hall is now attached to a farmhouse further south-west.

Descent: Sir John Harsyck (fl. 1361); to son, John Harsyck (d. 1381); to son, Sir John Harsyck (d. 1384); to son, John Harsyck; to brother, Sir Roger Harsyck (d. 1454); to daughters Margaret, wife of William Dorward and Joan, wife of Richard Dorward; on the death of Joan and her husband without issue the estate passed to Margaret and William's daughter, Elizabeth Dorward, wife of Thomas Fotheringay of Brockley (Suffk); to daughter Margaret, wife of Nicholas Beaupré; to son, Edmund Beaupré; to daughter Dorothy, wife of Sir Robert Bell, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; to son, Sir Edmund Bell (d. 1607), kt.; sold 1610 to Sir Edward Barkham (c.1551-1634), kt.; to son, Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Edward Barkham (1628-88), 2nd bt.; to widow, Frances (d. 1706), later wife of William Richardson (1650-1702), 3rd Lord Cramond; to daughter, Hon. Elizabeth, wife of William Jenny, who sold 1703 to Andrew Fountaine of Narford Hall, with which it descended thereafter.

High House, West Acre, Norfolk

High House, West Acre: an engraving of the entrance front in 1818, showing it before modifications by Donthorn.

It is thought that Sir Edward Barkham, 1st bt. constructed a new house here in the early 17th century (perhaps about 1638, when he rebuilt the church), but nothing seems to be known of its appearance. It fell into disrepair in the early 18th century when Charles Yallop alias Spelman (d. c.1736) and his wife encountered financial and legal difficulties. The present house is a rebuilding for their son, Edward Spelman (d. 1767), an eccentric classicist, writer and translator, who experienced a brief period of prosperity in the 1750s. The house, which had recently been completed in 1756, has an entrance front of two storeys and seven bays, of which the central five are deeply recessed. The upper storey forms a piano nobile, and has much larger windows than the ground floor below it. The window surrounds of rustication in alternating sizes seem to belong to the 1750s. 

High House, West Acre: the garden front in 1874. Image: Historic England.

Spelman was once more in financial difficulties by 1761, when he was obliged to sell the house and estate to Richard Hamond (d. 1776). After he inherited the property, Richard's son, Anthony Hamond (1742-1822), added flanking wings in line with the rear elevation of the original block, creating a thirteen-bay garden front, and perhaps also the castellations on the entrance side, which were in place by 1818. Further changes were made by Anthony's great-nephew, another Anthony Hamond (1805-69), who in c.1829 employed W.J. Donthorn to update the house. He altered the fenestration of the long garden front, so that the centre has just three windows in place of its original seven, while the wings have groups of three windows rather than being evenly spaced like the centre. He also rebuilt the stables as single-storey ranges around a small courtyard with higher corner towers and a carriage arch under a pediment on the east side. 

High House, West Acre: the gallery in 1874. Image: Historic England.

Inside, the most remarkable feature of the house is the principal room, built as a picture gallery, which runs the entire width of the central block on the garden front, and has a cartouche in the centre of the ceiling with a head of Medusa and the inscription 'Solonos' in Greek characters. The room opens from a transverse corridor running the width of the house, which in turn is approached from the entrance front up a long flight of stairs with a single landing half-way up, set under a shallow coffered segmental vault supported on Ionic pilasters. The gallery, staircase and corridor existed already in 1756, but were remodelled by Donthorn in 1829.

Since Donthorn's work, only relatively minor changes seem to have taken place, including refurbishment and redecoration under the guidance of J. Fletcher Watson after the Second World War. More recently, Sir Anthony Gormley asked David Chipperfield architects to prepare a scheme for remodelling the stable court, but this seems not to have gone ahead.

Descent: sold c.1620 to Sir Edward Barkham (c.1551-1634), kt.; to son, Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Edward Barkham (1628-88), 2nd bt.; to daughter, Eleanor (1670-c.1728), wife of Charles Yallop alias Spelman (d. c.1736); to son, Edward Spelman (d. 1767); sold 1761 to Richard Hamond (d. 1776); to son, Anthony Hamond (1742-1822); to great-nephew, Anthony Hamond (1805-69); to son, Anthony Hamond (1834-95); to brother, Thomas Astley Horace Hamond (1845-1917); who sold 1897 to Henry Birkbeck (1853-1930); to son, Henry Anthony Birkbeck (1885-1936); to Henry Birkbeck (1915-2003); to son, Henry Charles Birkbeck (b. 1952), who sold c.2010 to Sir Anthony Gormley (b. 1950), sculptor.

Wainfleet Hall, Lincolnshire

Wainfleet Hall today

The present Wainfleet Hall is largely early-to-mid 19th century, but it is apparent that the site was occupied much earlier than this. The Ordnance Survey 2" drawing of 1818 shows a house in a formally landscaped setting, and although there seems to be no unambiguous earlier visual record, there is clear documentary evidence that there was a 'capital messuage' at the centre of the estate by 1733. Since the Barkham family built up an estate in Wainfleet St Mary by a series of small purchases in the early 17th century, it is probable that they also built the first house on this site, but when must remain speculative. In the early 20th century, the house was occupied by Mr. Tindall, agent for the Bethlem estate and also for the Lincolnshire property of Magdalen College, Oxford. It is now a boarding house for Skegness Grammar School.

Descent: estate formed by Sir Robert Barkham (1599-1661), kt.; to son, Sir Edward Barkham (1631-69), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Robert Barkham (d. c.1701), 2nd bt.; to brother, Sir Edward Barkham (c.1680-1711), 3rd bt.; to cousin, Edward Barkham (1673-1733), who bequeathed it to the Bethlem Hospital, which retained it until c.1919 when it was dispersed by sale.

White Hall, Tottenham, Middlesex

An account of this house is given in my post on the Proctor-Beauchamp family of Langley Park.

Barkham family of South Acre, baronets

Sir Edward Barkham (c.1551-1634), kt.
from his monument at South Acre

Barkham, Sir Edward (c.1551-1634), kt. Son of Edward Barkham (d. 1599) of South Acre (Norfk), yeoman, and his second wife, Elizabeth Rolfe, born about 1551. He came to London as a young man, and allegedly started as a pedlar selling hobby-horses, but quickly progressed to more general mercantile concerns and made a fortune. He invested heavily in overseas trading concerns and was a member of the Virginia Company. He was Master of the Leathersellers Company, 1605-06, 1608-09 and of the Drapers Company, 1622-23; Alderman for Farringdon Within Ward, 1611-21 and Cheap Ward, 1621-34; Sheriff of London, 1611-12; Lord Mayor of London, 1621-22. He was knighted, 16 June 1622. He married, 27 May 1589 at Layston (Herts), Jane (c.1573-1654), daughter of John Crouch of Cornbury (Herts), and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Barkham (c.1593-1632); married, 6 May 1611 at St Mary Aldermary, London, Sir John Garrard (c.1590-c.1637), 1st bt., of Lamer Park, Wheathamstead (Herts) (who m2, 20 December 1636 at Wheathamstead, Jane (d. 1673), daughter of Sir Thomas Lowe and widow of Sir Moulton Lambarde of Sevenoaks (Kent)) and had issue six sons and eight daughters; died 17 April 1632 and was buried at Wheathamstead;
(2) Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667), 1st bt. (q.v.);
(3) Susan Barkham (1596-1622), baptised at St Lawrence Jewry, London, 18 January 1595/6; married, 1614 at St Mary Bothaw, London, Robert Walpole (1593-1663) of Houghton (Norfk) and had issue one son and two daughters; buried at Houghton, 9 November 1622;
(4) John Barkham (b. & d. 1597), baptised 28 October 1597; died in infancy and was buried 16 November 1597;
(5) Sir Robert Barkham (1599-1661), 1st bt. [for whom see below, Barkham of Wainfleet];
(6) Jane Barkham (1602-61), baptised at St Lawrence Jewry, London, 16 May 1602; married, 1626/7 at St Mary Bothaw, as his second wife, Sir Charles Adelmare Caesar (1589-1642) of Benington (Herts), Master of the Rolls, son of Sir Julius Caesar, kt., who held the same office, and had issue six sons and three daughters; died 16 June 1661 and was buried at Benington, where she is commemorated by a monument;
(7) Margaret Barkham (1602-03), baptised 16 May 1602; died in infancy and was buried 15 June 1603;
(8) Margaret Barkham (1603-40), baptised 18 December 1603; married, c.1632, as his third wife, Sir Anthony Irby (1605-82), kt., of Boston (Lincs), but had no issue; died 28 November 1640;
(9) John Barkham (b. 1604), baptised 7 December 1604; probably died young;
(10) Thomas Barkham (b. & d. 1606), baptised 2 June 1606; died in infancy and was buried 29 November 1606;
(11) Hugh Barkham (1610-28), baptised in London, 23 December 1610; died unmarried and was buried at South Acre, 20 October 1628.
By 1597 he had bought the manor of Wainfleet in Lincolnshire and he enlarged his estate there through piecemeal purchases. About 1610 he built up an estate of freehold and copyhold land at Tottenham (Middx) that included Crokes Farm (later White Hall). He lived, however, in a house on Tottenham High Road that became the Ship Inn after his death. By the early 1620s he had bought the South Acre and West Acre estates in Norfolk.
He died 15 January 1633/4 and was buried at South Acre where he and his wife are commemorated by a large monument erected in his lifetime; his will was proved 17 January 1633/4. His widow was buried at South Acre, 10 June 1654; her will was proved 27 June 1654.

Barkham, Sir Edward (c.1595-1667), 1st bt. Son and heir of Sir Edward Barkham (c.1551- 1634), kt., Lord Mayor of London, and his wife Jane, daughter of John Crouch of Cornbury (Herts). Educated at King's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1611; appointed MA 1613) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1614). He was created a baronet in the lifetime of his father, 28 June 1623 and knighted at Greenwich, 30 June 1623. He was a freeman of Boston (Lincs) from 1625 and MP for Boston, 1625-26; High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1635-36; JP for Norfolk 1650-56, 1660-67, and possibly earlier. In 1638 he substantially rebuilt the church at West Acre, which was already 'wholly decaied and ruynated' in 1602. He supported the Parliamentarian side in the Civil War and held local office throughout the interregnum. He married, 31 July 1622 at Tottenham (Middx), Frances (d. 1667), daughter of Sir Thomas Berney, kt. of Reedham (Norfk), and had issue:
(1) Jane Barkham (c.1623-28); eldest daughter; buried at St Mary Bothaw, London, 6 February 1627/8;
(2) Frances Barkham (1624-1703), baptised 16 September 1624; married 1st, 14 August 1649 at Tottenham, William White of [place not stated] (Yorks); married 2nd, 10 June 1671 at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), Sir Robert Williams (1629-78/80), 2nd bt., of Penrhyn; buried at St Ann, Soho, London, 31 January 1702/3; will proved 8 February 1702/3;
(3) Margaret Barkham (b. 1626; fl. 1679), baptised at St Mary Bothaw, London, 9 May 1626; married, before 1658, Sir Edmund Jennings (1626-91), MP for Ripon, 1659-61, 1673-79, 1685-89, 1690-91, son of Jonathan Jennings of Ripon, and had issue four sons and four daughters; living 1679;
(4) Sir Edward Barkham (1628-88), 2nd bt. (q.v.);
(5) Jane Barkham (1630-82), baptised at Tottenham, 8 September 1630; married, 22 February 1648/9 at St Mary Aldermanbury, London, Anthony Deane (1630-76) of Dynes Hall (Essex) (which he sold in 1653) and the Inner Temple, son of Sir Drew Deane (d. 1638), and had issue seven sons and three daughters; buried at Tottenham, 2 March 1682;
(6) Elizabeth Barkham (b. 1631), baptised at St Mary Bothaw, London, 3 November 1631; married, 1670 (licence 20 June), John Lister (d. 1715) of Linton-on-the-Wolds (Yorks ER); living in 1679;
(7) Thomas Barkham (b. 1633), baptised at St Mary, Bothaw, London, 14 February 1632; probably died young;
(8) Mary Barkham (1634-98), baptised at St Mary Bothaw, London, 16 October 1634; married, 24 June 1656 at Tottenham, Norton Curteis (1618-99) of Gatton (Surrey) and later of Poplar (Middx), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 1 July and was buried in the chancel at Sundridge (Kent), 17 July 1698;

(9) Susanna Barkham (1635-74), baptised at Tottenham, 6 October 1635; married Anthony Smithson (d. 1688) of Armine (Yorks) and Tottenham (Middx), second son of Sir Hugh Smithson, bt., and had issue one son; died 30 November 1674 and was buried at Stanwick St. John (Yorks), where she and her husband are commemorated by a monument;
(10) Anne Barkham; married, 15 October 1663 in Ripon Cathedral, Sir Jonathan Jennings (1633-1707), kt., MP for Ripon, 1659, 1689-90, second son of Jonathan Jennings of Ripon and brother of Sir Edmund Jennings of Ripon, and had issue one daughter; living in 1701;
(11) Sir William Barkham (1639-95), 3rd bt. (q.v.);
(12) Lucy Barkham (1640-81), baptised at Tottenham, 20 February 1639/40; married. c.1670 (licence 26 December), Francis Wall of Aldeby (Norfk) and had issue; died 30 June 1681 and was buried at Gayton Thorpe (Norfk), 5 June 1681, where she was commemorated by a monument which gave her date of death incorrectly as 1691;
(13) [Unnamed son] (b. & d. 1641); buried at Tottenham, 6 March 1640/1;
(14) Juliana Barkham (1642-99), baptised 22 February 1641/2; married, 23 February 1679/80 at St Bride, Fleet St., London, Leonard Sowersby (d. 1694), and had issue; will proved 19 January 1699/1700;
(15) John Barkham (1643-70), baptised at St Mary, Aldermanbury, London, 11 December 1643; in partnership with his brother William as a mercer in London; inherited his father's property in Moorfields; died unmarried and was buried at South Acre, 29 July 1670; will proved 9 May 1671;
(16) Joanna Barkham (1644-45), baptised 3 November 1644; died in infancy and was buried 13 February 1644/5.
He inherited the West and South Acre estates from his father and lived at the High House, West Acre, where he probably built a new mansion. He also bought his brother's house at Tottenham (Middx) in or soon after 1661.
He died 2 August 1667 at his house at Tottenham, but was buried at South Acre; his will was proved 6 August 1667. His wife was buried at South Acre, 25 July 1667.

Barkham, Sir Edward (1628-88), 2nd bt. Son of Sir Edward Barkham (c.1595-1667), 1st bt. and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Berney, kt. of Reedham (Norfk.), born 1628. He succeeded his father as 2nd bt., 2 August 1667. High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1667-68. He married 1st, 1651, Grace (1623-58), daughter of Sir Lewis Watson, 1st Baron Rockingham, and 2nd, 1660/1 (licence 24 January), Frances (d. 1706), daughter of Sir Robert Napier, 2nd bt. of Luton Hoo (Beds), and had issue:
(2.1) Mary Barkham (d. 1671); buried 22 May 1671;
(2.2) Edward Barkham (1665-68), baptised at Westacre, 20 January 1665; died 23 July and was buried at South Acre, 24 July 1668;
(2.3) Penelope Barkham (1668-75), baptised at Westacre (Norfk), 20 April 1668; died young on 11 July and was buried at South Acre, 13 July 1675;
(2.4) Ellen alias Eleanor Barkham (1670-c.1728), baptised at West Acre, 8 June 1670; inherited West Acre High House from her father in 1688; she was implicated as a minor figure in the Atterbury Plot, 1722, when she carried letters between the Duke of Norfolk, George Jernegan and others; married, by 1692, Charles Yallop alias Spelman (d. c.1736) of Bowthorp (Norfk), and had issue one son; died about 1728.
He inherited the West Acre & South Acre estate from his father in 1667, and lived at the High House, West Acre. At his death his property was divided between his widow and daughter.
He died in 1688 and his will was proved 31 August 1688. His first wife was buried at Southacre, 30 March 1658; her husband was granted administration of her goods, 18 June 1661. His widow inherited the South Acre estate from her husband and married 2nd, Henry Richardson (1650-1702), 3rd Baron Cramond; she died in Norwich and was buried at South Acre (Norfk), 19 November 1706.

Barkham, Sir William (1639-95), 3rd bt. Son of Sir Edward Barkham (fl. 1623), 1st bt. and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Berney, kt. of Reedham (Norfk.), baptised at Tottenham (Middx), 26 February 1638/9. In partnership with his younger brother John (until the latter's death in 1670) as a mercer in London; citizen and draper of London. He succeeded his elder brother as 3rd bt., 1688. He married, 1674 (licence 17 April), Judith (1655-1724), daughter of Sir John Halsey, kt. of Gaddesden (Herts), Master in Chancery, and had issue:
(1) Dorothy Barkham (b. 1678), born and baptised at All Hallows, Honey Lane, London, 15 December 1678; co-heir; living in 1703;
(2) Frances Barkham; born about 1680; married, 1701 (licence 31 July) Richard Noyes of the Middle Temple; co-heir to her father; living in 1703; 
(3) Jane Barkham (1683-84), baptised at All Hallows, Honey Lane, London, 12 February 1682/3; died in infancy and was buried at Tottenham, 26 October 1684;
(4) Mary Barkham (1686-1724), baptised 23 March 1685/6; died unmarried and was 'carried away from St Giles in the Fields' (Middx) to be buried, 28 December 1724;
(5) Theodosia Barkham (1687-1711), baptised at All Hallows, Honey Lane, London, 21 March 1686/7; died unmarried and was 'carried away from St Giles in the Fields' to be buried at Tottenham, 5 June 1711;
(6) Anne Barkham (b. 1688), born 24 December and baptised at All Hallows, Honey Lane, London, 25 December 1688; living in 1708;
(7) Jane Barkham (c.1690-1724?), perhaps born c.1690; co-heir; living in 1703 and perhaps the woman of this name buried at Tottenham, 25 October 1724;
(8) Edward Barkham (1692-95), born 2 November and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 9 November 1692; died young and was buried at South Acre, 20 December 1695;
(9) Elizabeth Barkham (b. & d. 1696), born posthumously and baptised at St Andrew, Holborn, 21 April 1696, but died in infancy and was buried there, 23 April 1696.
He inherited his father's house at Tottenham, 1667, but lived in Hatton Garden, London and at East Walton (Norfk). At his death his property passed to his surviving daughters as co-heiresses and was sold.
He was buried at Southacre, 28 December 1695, when the baronetcy became extinct; his will was proved in January 1696, but because he died before he could sign it before witnesses it was necessary to obtain an Act of Parliament to give effect to it. His widow married 2nd, 19 June 1697, at Westminster Abbey, John Holsworthy (d. by 1735); she was buried at Woolwich, 19 March 1723/4; administration of her goods was granted 15 December 1735.

Barkham family of Wainfleet, baronets

Barkham, Sir Robert (1599-1661), kt. Second son of Sir Edward Barkham (c.1551-1634), kt., Lord Mayor of London, and his wife Jane, daughter of John Crouch of Cornbury (Herts?), baptised 18 March 1598/9. Educated at Kings College, Cambridge (matriculated 1618). Knighted 1641. He married, 24 November 1625 at Tottenham, Mary (d. 1644), daughter of Richard Wilcox of London and Tottenham (Middx), and had issue:
(1) John Barkham (d. 1638); died young and was buried at Tottenham, 10 January 1637/8;
(2) Elizabeth Barkham (b. 1628), baptised at St Bartholomew the Great, London, 27 March 1628; married, 27 August 1649 at Wainfleet St Mary, James Uxley esq.;
(3) Margaret Barkham (1629-53), baptised 15 November 1629; died unmarried and was buried 20 January 1652/3;
(4) Sir Edward Barkham (1631-69), 1st bt. (q.v.);
(5) Jane Barkham (b. 1632), baptised at St Bartholomew the Great, London, 31 October 1632; married, 3 August 1657 at St Clement Danes, London, John Alured (d. 1668), son of Col. John Alured of Hull Charterhouse, the regicide, and had issue one son and one daughter;
(6) Alice Barkham (1634-76), baptised at St Bartholomew the Great, London, 5 May 1634; married, April/May 1655, Robert Coney (d. 1688) of Walpole (Norfk) and had issue eight sons and six daughters; died 3 October 1676 and was buried at Walpole St. Clement, where she is commemorated by a floor slab with an unusual inscription;
(7) Robert Barkham (1635-41), baptised at Tottenham, 17 August 1635; died young and was buried at Tottenham, 3 April 1641;
(8) Dorcas Barkham (1636-1720), baptised at Tottenham, 29 September 1636; married 1st, 13 May 1662 at St Nicholas, Cole Abbey, London, as his second wife, Sir William Delaune (d. 1667) of Sharsted Court (Kent), merchant, and had issue one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 2 September 1669 at St Giles, Camberwell (Surrey), Sir Edward "Red Ned" Dering (1633-1703), merchant and Baltic agent to the Navy, but had no further issue; died 31 October and was buried at Doddington (Kent), 8 November 1720;
(9) Mary Barkham (d. 1662); married, 12 July 1654 at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), Richard Nelthorpe (fl. 1688) of Scawby (Lincs), and had issue one son; buried 30 October 1662;
(10) Susanna Barkham (1640-49), baptised at St Martin, Ludgate Hill, London, 8 August 1640; died young and was buried at Tottenham, 20 September 1649.
(11) Frances Barkham (b. 1641); baptised at Stoke Newington, 21 August 1641;
(12) Robert Barkham (1643-91) (q.v.);
He inherited his father's Tottenham and Wainfleet estates in 1634.
He died after 27 February and before 18 July 1661 and was buried at Tottenham, where he and his wife are commemorated by a large monument designed by Edward Marshall and erected in Sir Robert's lifetime; his will was proved 18 July 1661. His wife died 7 December and was buried at Tottenham, 16 December 1644.

Barkham, Sir Edward (1631-69), 1st bt. Son and heir of Sir Robert Barkham (1599-1661) of Wainfleet and Tottenham (Middx) and his wife Mary, daughter of Richard Wilcox of London, born 20 March and baptised at St Bartholomew-the-Great, London, 24 March 1630/1. He was created a baronet by King Charles II, 21 July 1661. High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, 1664-65. He married, 31 August 1656 at St Clement Danes, London, Anne (b. 1643?), daughter and heir of Sir Robert Lee of Billesley (Warks) and had issue:
(1) Sir Robert Barkham (1657-1701), 2nd bt. (q.v.);
(2) Edward Barkham (1659-60), baptised at Langton-by-Spilsby (Lincs), 15 October 1659; died in infancy and was buried in the same place, 6 May 1660;
(3) Mary Barkham (b. 1660), baptised at Langton-by-Spilsby, 26 October 1660;
(4) Edward Barkham (b. 1664), baptised at St Botolph, Boston, 29 May 1664; probably died young.
He inherited his father's property at Wainfleet (Lincs) in 1661. He and his wife also inherited her father's Billesley (Warks) estate in 1659, but sold it later the same year to her uncle, Charles Lee.
He died 14 September 1669 and was buried at Wainfleet. His widow married 2nd, 1671 (licence 21 December), John Hodges of the Inner Temple, Recorder of Ipswich; and was living in 1682.

Barkham, Sir Robert (1657-1700), 2nd bt. Only surviving son of Sir Edward Barkham (fl. 1661), 1st bt. and his wife Anne, daughter and heir of Sir Robert Lee of Billesley (Warks), baptised at Tottenham, 29 July 1657. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet, 14 September 1669. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1675/6). He married, 20 May 1679, at Westminster Abbey, Esther (d. 1691), daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Jeffrey of Wigtoft (Lincs) and Earls Croome (Worcs), and had issue:
(1) Sir Edward Barkham (1680-1711), 3rd bt. (q.v.);
(2) Anne Barkham (b. & d. 1681), baptised at Great Rollright (Oxon), 26 February 1680/1; died in infancy and was buried at Great Rollright, 9 August 1681;
(3) Mary Barkham (1682-1742), baptised at Great Rollright, 25 September 1682; married, 11 December 1709 at Louth, Samuel Newcomen (1676-1730) of Bag Enderby (Lincs); died without issue, 15 March 1741/2;
(4) William Barkham (d. 1686); buried at Great Rollright, 22 February 1685/6;
(5) Robert Barkham (d. 1707); died without issue and was buried at Wainfleet All Saints, 17 April 1707;
(6) Hester Barkham (d. 1713); married, 2 March 1705/6 at Cheltenham (Glos), James Smallpiece (d. 1714), and had issue three sons; buried at Cheltenham, 15 September 1713;
(7) Katherine Barkham (d. 1688); buried at Great Rollright, 23 October 1688;
(8) Fleetwood Barkham (d. 1690); buried at Great Rollright, 17 May 1690.
He inherited Wainfleet from his father in 1669, and he and his wife inherited the manor of Earls Croome (Worcs) from her her brother, which he sold in 1694. Despite these holdings, they seem to have lived at Great Rollright (Oxon) throughout their married life.
He died 17 October 1700 and was buried at St Mary Magdalene, Lincoln; administration of his goods was granted 23 June 1701.  His wife died 1 May and was buried at Earls Croome (Worcs), 11 May 1691.

Barkham, Sir Edward (1680-1711), 3rd bt. Eldest son of Sir Robert Barkham (1657-1700), 2nd bt., and his wife Hester, daughter of Thomas Jeffrey of Wigtoft (Lincs) and Earlscoombe (Worcs), baptised at Great Rollright (Oxon), 2 March 1679/80. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1695). He succeeded his father as 3rd baronet on 17 October 1700. He married, 11 March 1704/5 at Louth (Lincs), Mary (1686-1709), daughter and co-heir of John Woolley of Alford (Lincs), but had no issue.
He inherited the Wainfleet estate from his father in 1700. At his death it passed to his second cousin once removed, Edward Barkham (1673-1733) (q.v.).
He died in London, 13 February 1710/11, when the baronetcy became extinct, and was buried at Tottenham, 15 February 1710/11; his will was proved 13 June 1711. His wife was buried at South Thoresby, 19 December 1709.

Barkham, Robert (1643-91). Second son of Sir Robert Barkham (1599-1661), kt. (q.v.), of Wainfleet and Tottenham (Middx), and his wife Mary, daughter of Richard Wilcox of London, baptised at Tottenham, 10 September 1643. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1660/1). He married, 29 January 1666/7 at Burwell (Lincs), Frances (1644-1712), second daughter of Sir Martin Lister, kt., of Burwell, and had issue:
(1) Frances Barkham (b. & d. 1667); baptised at Burwell, 8 October 1667; died in infancy and was buried at Burwell, 6 December 1667;
(2) Susanna Barkham (b. 1668), baptised at Burwell, 15 December 1668; married [forename unknown] Astry; living in 1711;
(3) Mary Barkham (b. & d. 1670), baptised at Burwell, 7 May 1670; died in infancy and was buried there the following day;
(4) Robert Barkham (1672-1711), baptised at Louth, 12 July 1672; apprenticed to Sir Stephen Evans, kt, citizen and goldsmith of London, 1690; at court as Groom of the Privy Chamber, 1699-1711; died unmarried; by his will, proved 8 September 1711, he left all his property to his mother and asked her to pay his debts;
(5) Edward Barkham (1673-1733) (q.v.);
(6) Michael Barkham (1679-1711), born 2 April and baptised at St Mary Magdalene, Lincoln, 17 April 1679; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1705; Lt., 1706; Capt., 1708; Capt-Lt., 1709; Capt., 1710; probably resigned about January 1711); married, 13 November 1707 at Norton Disney (Lincs), Jane (1687-1759), Bedchamber Woman to the Princess of Wales in 1741 (who m2, 8 June 1717 at Lincoln's Inn Chapel, Lt-Col. Daniel Leighton MP (1694-1765) of the Inner Temple and Boreham (Essex), younger son of Sir Edward Leighton, 1st bt., of Wattlesborough and had further issue two sons and two daughters), daughter of Nathaniel Thorold of Lincoln, and had issue one son (who died in infancy); apparently died around May 1711; in his will, proved 15 June 1711, he is inexplicably described as 'of Kingston upon Hull' although his burial describes him as 'of Lincoln', and no mention is made of his military rank or service.
He lived at Burwell (Lincs) with his parents-in-law until their deaths around 1671, and thereafter perhaps in Lincoln.
He died 19 May and was buried at Burwell, 22 May 1691. His widow was buried at Wainfleet St Mary, 26 March 1712; her will was proved 9 May 1712.

Barkham, Edward (1673-1733). Eldest son of Robert Barkham (1643-91) and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Michael Lister of Burwell, baptised at Kelstern (Lincs), 6 November 1673. In 1693 he was apprenticed for seven years to John Johnson of London, who was  member of the Drapers Company. In his lifetime he paid for the refurnishing of the chancel of Wainfleet St Mary church, and for the provision of a new set of communion plate, and by his will he augmented the stipend of the curate of the church by £35 a year. He was evidently much moved by the plight of the incurably mad inmates of the Bethlem Hospital in London, and bequeathed his estate at Wainfleet for their support. He married, 11 July 1728 at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), Mary Wheeler (d. 1762?), but had no issue.
He inherited the Wainfleet estate from his cousin, Sir Edward Barkham, 3rd bt., in 1711. At his death it was bequeathed to the Bethlem Hospital in London. He also had a house in the Cathedral close at Lincoln, which was left to his widow and after her death or remarriage to the Bethlem Hospital.
He died 4 March, and was buried at Wainfleet St. Mary, 10 March 1732/3, where he is commemorated by a monument designed by William Palmer; his will was proved 19 May 1733. His widow married 2nd, 3 July 1735 at Grays Inn Chapel, Tobias Rustat (d. 1741) of Lincoln; she may be the Mary Rustat buried at Water Newton (Hunts), 12 July 1762.

Principal sources

Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 2nd edn., 1841, pp. 37-38; G.E.C Complete Baronetage, vol. 1, 1900, p.219 and vol. 3, 1903, p.222; Sir N. Pevsner, J. Harris & N. Antram, The buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 2nd edn., 1989, p. 778;
https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/bb4ae/barkham1.php;
http://www.archive.org/stream/lincolnshirepedi01madd#page/n199/mode/1up.

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive, although some later papers relating to the Lincolnshire estate will be found in the archives of the Bethlem Hospital at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind.

Coat of arms

Both families used the arms: Paly of six, argent and gules, a chevron or.

Can you help?

• If any can supply more information about the history and development of South Acre Hall or Wainfleet Hall, or any further illustrations of these buildings or of High House, West Acre or White Hall, Tottenham, I should be most interested.
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 30 August 2019 and was updated 1 September 2019 and 3 March 2022. I am most grateful to Rory O'Donnell for information about High House.

(388) Barker of Stanlake Park

This family can be traced no further back than Thomas Barker (1754-1815), a prosperous Birmingham linen draper, who retired in 1812 to what may have been a newly-built house at Ladywood on the edge of the city called Springfield House. Thomas married twice, although both of his wives were called Mary. By his first wife he had two sons, the elder of whom, John Fisher Barker (1776-1858) inherited the linen drapery business and later moved further out of the city, to Erdington (Warks). By his second marriage, Thomas had a further five sons and four daughters, many of whom had interesting careers. The eldest son of this family, Charles Barker (1793-1841) was given a classical education and sent to Oxford, where he took a degree. On leaving university he was appointed - no doubt through his father's contacts - as Master of the Bishop Vesey Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield (Warks), but he allowed the school to fail while using the income it provided to live the life of a gentleman. His three surviving brothers seem to have been more conscientious: two of them were solicitors, in London and Manchester, while a third became an eminent London surgeon. Our concern here is with George Barker (1795-1868), a solicitor who was educated at Rugby School and probably articled in Birmingham, perhaps to Thomas Whateley. He is easily confused with George Barker (1776-1845), a leading Birmingham solicitor in the second quarter of the 19th century, who was probably his cousin, and who later acquired Thomas Barker's house at Springfield.

George Barker (1795-1868) was in practice in London by 1825, and within twenty years he seems to have made a great deal of money. The nature of his legal practice, and thus the source of this wealth, is far from clear, but by 1845 he seems to have been in a position to retire from practice and to buy Stanlake Park as a country estate. His choice of this estate, which lay partly in the parish of Hurst (Berks), where another Barker family had long been resident, may indicate that he believed, or wanted others to believe, that he was connected to them, but any connection can only have been very distant and none has been traced. At his death, George left a substantial fortune of £250,000, which would have ranked him with all but the richest industrialists and landowners, and meant that he was at least five times wealthier than the average country squire. When George died he was succeeded by his eldest son, George William Barker (1831-69), but in less than a year G.W. Barker had died too, leaving his surviving younger brother, the Rev. Alfred Gresley Barker (1835-1906), as head of the family. Stanlake Park passed, however, to the widow of George Barker senior, Emma Sophia Barker (1799-1886), and only passed to Alfred after her death. Alfred, who was rector of Sherfield-on-Loddon (Hants) from 1863-75, bought the rectory, which he renamed 'St. Leonards' shortly before giving up his incumbency, and provided a smaller house in the village for his successor as rector. He also purchased additional land at Sherfield, forming a small estate around St. Leonards, where he continued to live after inheriting Stanlake. Stanlake was therefore let until after Alfred's death, when his son and heir, Lt-Col. Frederick George Barker (1866-1951) took the house and estate back in hand. Both Alfred and Frederick were keen amateur cricketers, but Frederick's first love was hunting, and Stanlake provided access to both fox and stag hunts. Hunting was a passion which he shared with his eldest son, George Cartmell Barker (1896-1945), who was killed in a hunting accident, and with his daughter, Effie Barker (1912-97), who was Master or joint Master of the Garth Foxhounds for thirty years. F.G. Barker and his family are several times described as a close-knit family, but his youngest son, Gilbert Welch Barker (1906-66), who was an art historian and novelist, seems to have had very different interests to the rest of the family. It was he who brought his friend, the novelist Angela Thirkell (1890-1961), to stay at Stanlake, and there are said to be echoes of both the house and the family in a number of her works. Stanlake Park was sold in 1952 after F.G. Barker's death, but there are living descendants of his two eldest children.

Stanlake Park, Hurst, Berkshire

Stanlake Park: view of the entrance front in the 1920s. Image: University of London/Victoria County History.

An account of this house is given in a post on the Aldworth family of Stanlake Park and Frogmore House.

Barker family of Stanlake Park

Barker, Thomas (c.1754-1815). Parentage unknown, said to have been born 8 October 1754. Linen draper in Birmingham (retired 1812). He married 1st, 1 February 1776 at Birmingham, Mary, daughter of William Thomas of Birmingham, linen draper, and 2nd, 1 March 1787 at Birmingham, Mary Lander (c.1761-1825), and had issue:
(1.1) John Fisher Barker (1776-1858), born 12 November and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 6 December 1776; draper in Birmingham; lived in retirement as a gentleman at Erdington (Warks) and later at Heavitree (Devon); married, 26 August 1806 at Southwark (Surrey), Maria (d. 1860), daughter of William Watson of Southwark, and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 24 November 1858; will proved 27 December 1858 (effects under £5,000);
(1.2) William Barker (b. 1778), baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 25 February 1778; perhaps died young;
(2.1) Katherine Anne Barker (1788-1801), born 12 January 1788 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 28 March 1789; died young, 15 February and was buried at St Philip, Birmingham, 26 February 1801;
(2.2) Mary Barker (1789-1862), born 22 January and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 28 March 1789; married, 15 August 1811 at St Martin, Birmingham, John Cox Dillman Engleheart (1783-1862) of St. Marylebone (Middx) and later Tunbridge Wells (Kent), artist, and had issue one son and four daughters; died Jan-Mar 1878 and was buried at Tunbridge Wells;
(2.3) Jane Sophia Barker (1790-1870), born 1 September 1790 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 3 September 1791; married, 28 September 1833 at Naples (Italy), George W. Mylne (1802-73) of Cheltenham (Glos), advocate, but had no issue; buried at St Peter, Leckhampton (Glos), 30 November 1870;
(2.4) Charles Barker (1793-1842), born 31 January 1793 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 7 May 1794; educated at Rugby (admitted 1805) and Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1811; BA 1815; MA 1817; BCL 1830); Master of the Bishop Vesey Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield (Warks), 1818-42, where his tenure 'heralded the lowest point' in the school's history; he took only classical pupils, but was an abysmal teacher and school numbers dwindled almost to the point of extinction; he 'lived like a country gentleman, using the school as his stately home, managing the school lands and involving himself in local politics', and even converted the schoolroom into a dining room, teaching the occasional pupil in the laundry instead; despite this, his cronies in the Sutton Coldfield corporation appointed him as Warden (i.e. Mayor) in 1836 and 1837; JP for Warwickshire; he married, 4 January 1825 at Edgbaston (Warks), Caroline (b. 1792), daughter of Theophilus Richards of Edgbaston, and had issue; he died 17 October and was buried at Sutton Coldfield, 25 October 1842; his will was proved 6 January 1843;
(2.5) (Thomas) Henry Barker (1794-1841), born 18 June 1794 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 4 October 1796; solicitor in Manchester by 1826; died unmarried at Cheltenham, 31 January, and was buried at Holy Trinity, Cheltenham, 5 February 1841; after his brother Charles, who he named as his executor, became too ill to wind up his estate, administration of his goods with will annexed was granted to one of his creditors, 22 September 1841;
(2.6) George Barker (1795-1868) (q.v.);
(2.7) Francis Barker (1797-98), born 21 November 1797; died in infancy, 18 February 1798;
(2.8) Helen Barker (1798-1885), born 20 October 1798 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 30 October 1800; remained unmarried and lived with her married sister in Cheltenham; died in Teignmouth (Devon), 3 January 1885 and was buried at St Peter, Leckhampton (Glos), 7 January 1885;
(2.9) Edgar Barker (1801-73), born 3 March 1801 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 20 September 1803; surgeon; FRCS; consultant surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital, London; married, 20 September 1828 at Meldreth (Cambs.), Anne Mortlock (1805-91), and had issue four sons and five daughters; died 4 August 1873; will proved 12 September 1873 (effects under £35,000).
He lived at Springfield House, Ladywood, Birmingham, which was sold in 1820.
He died 25 April at Springfield House, and was buried at St Philip, Birmingham, 29 April 1815. His first wife was buried 16 January 1780 or 4 May 1782. His widow died in London, 13 August 1825.

Barker, George (1795-1868). Fourth son of Thomas Barker (1754-1815), and his second wife Mary Lander, born 22 November 1795 and baptised at St Philip, Birmingham, 4 October 1796. Educated at Rugby (admitted 1807). Solicitor in Grays Inn Square, London by 1825 (and not to be confused with the man of the same name who was a solicitor in Birmingham, for whom see ODNB). JP for Berkshire; High Sheriff of Berkshire, 1856. He married, 18 August 1829 at Cheshunt (Herts), Emma Sophia (1799-1886), daughter of Frederick George Prescott of Theobalds Park (Herts), and had issue:
(1) George William Barker (1831-69) (q.v.);
(2) Frederick Grote Barker (1833-54), born 22 January and baptised at St Pancras Old Church (Middx), 23 February 1833; educated at Trinity College, Oxford (mat. 1850); an officer in the 68th Foot (Ensign, 1851; Lt., 1854); unmarried and without issue; fought in the Crimean War and was killed at the Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854;
(3) Emma Blanche Barker (1834-68), born 7 June and baptised at St Pancras Old Church, 13 August 1834; married, 3 October 1866 at Ruscombe, Letabilière John Litton, barrister-at-law, of Dublin, second son of Rt. Hon. Edward Litton QC MP of Altmore (Tyrone), Master in Chancery in Ireland, and had issue one son; died of gastric fever in Dublin, 5 December 1868;
(4) Rev. Alfred Gresley Barker (1835-1906) (q.v.);
(5) Arthur Henry Barker (1839-48), born 2 March and baptised at St Pancras Old Church, 16 April 1839; died young and was buried at St George, Bloomsbury, 7 July 1848;
(6) Francis (k/a Frank) Barker (1840-43), born 31 May and baptised at St Pancras Old Church, 23 June 1840; died young and was buried at St George, Bloomsbury, 29 June 1843;
(7) Edmund Fisher Barker (1842-43), born 24 February 1842; died in infancy, 17 March 1843.
He purchased Stanlake Park in 1847.
He died at the Bedford Hotel, Brighton (Sussex), 16 November 1868; his will was proved 6 January 1869 (effects under £250,000). His widow died 8 December 1886; her will was proved 3 March 1887 (effects £10,909).

Barker, George William (1831-69). Eldest son of George Barker (1795-1868) and his wife Emma Sophia, daughter of Frederick George Prescott of Theobalds Park (Herts), born 8 August 1831 and baptised at Cheshunt (Herts), 7 January 1832. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1849; BA 1853; MA 1857) and Inner Temple (admitted 1853; called 1857). Barrister-at-law. JP for Berkshire; an officer in the Royal Berkshire Militia (Ensign, 1853; Lt., 1854). He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Stanlake Park from his father in 1868. At his death it passed to his mother for life and then to his younger brother.
He died 10 September 1869; his will was proved 21 May 1870 (effects under £9,000).

Barker, Rev. Alfred Gresley (1835-1906). Third and youngest surviving son of George Barker (1795-1868) and his wife Emma Sophia, daughter of Frederick George Prescott of Theobalds Park (Herts), born 11 December 1835 and baptised at St Pancras Old Church (Middx), 21 January 1836. Educated at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1853; BA 1858; MA 1860). Ordained deacon, 1860 and priest, 1861. Curate in Dorset and Berkshire, 1861-63; Rector of Sherfield-on-Loddon (Hants), 1863-75. He was a freemason from 1856. He married, 23 May 1865 at St John, Penge (Surrey), Agnes (1841-1923), second daughter of Rev. Comyns Tucker of Beech Hill, Morchard Bishop (Devon), rector of Washford Pyne (Devon), and had issue, with a stillborn son:
(1) Frederick George Barker (1866-1951) (q.v.);
(2) Violet Agnes Barker (1867-1935), born 17 September and baptised at Sherfield-on-Loddon, 27 October 1867; married, 7 May 1891 at Sherfield-on-Loddon, Douglas Burnett (1859-1922), distiller and vinegar manufacturer, only son of Charles Douglas Burnett of Fern Hill, Farnborough (Hants) and had issue five children, of whom three were stillborn and one died young; died 15 November 1935; will proved 23 December 1935 (estate £9,569);
(3) Frances Mary (k/a Daisy) Barker (1873-1935), born 16 April 1873; married, 25 July 1894 at Sherfield-on-Loddon, Col. Robert Henry Tilney DSO (1866-1927), later stockbroker, eldest son of Col. R.J. Tilney CB of Parkside, Liverpool (Lancs) and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 9 July 1935; will proved 22 August 1935 (estate £5,547);
(4) Emma Louisa Mabel Barker (1878-81), born 24 August 1878; died young, 13 January 1881;
(5) twin, Arthur Prescott Barker (1882-1973), born 7 December 1882; solicitor; served in Army Service Corps in First World War (2nd Lt.) and received the Serbian Order of the White Eagle (5th class); married, 21 November 1925, Beatrice Emma (1893-1982), daughter of Richard Durnford CB, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 24 September 1973; will proved 12 November 1973 (estate £18,735);
(6) twin, Rev. John Bramston Barker (1882-1969), born 7 December 1882; educated at Eton, Trinity College, Oxford (BA) and Wells Theological College; ordained deacon, 1906 and priest, 1907; chaplain to the forces in First World War; rector of Sherfield-on-Loddon, 1913-25, Stratfield Saye (Hants), 1924-44 and of Dogmersfield & Winchfield (Hants), 1944-53; hon. canon of Winchester Cathedral, 1941-69; married, 3 June 1914 at Scole (Norfk), Nancy Rosamund (1891-1964), daughter of Rev. F. Page-Roberts, rector of Stratfield Saye, and had issue one son (kia 1940) and three daughters; died 17 November 1969; will proved 18 January 1970 (estate £21,129);
(7) Lillian Alice Barker (1885-1944), born 10/11 February 1885; married, 14 December 1905, Rev. Herbert Edward Watson Steedman (1868-1944), rector of Steventon, 1901-30 and Abbotts Ann (Hants), 1930-40, but had no issue; died 2 December 1944; will proved 5 February 1945 (estate £18,998).
He inherited Stanlake Park from his mother in 1886. At his death he left property at Hook (Hants) to his twin younger sons and the rest of his property to his widow for life, with power to appoint the subsequent beneficiary.
He died 11 December 1906; his will was proved 28 December 1906 (estate £70,630). His widow died 3 September 1923; her will was proved 12 October 1923 (estate £16,021).

Barker, Lt-Col. Frederick George (1866-1951). Eldest son of Rev. Alfred Gresley Barker (1835-1906) and his wife Agnes, second daughter of Rev. Comyns Tucker of Beech Hill (Devon), rector of Washford Pyne (Devon), born 27 October and baptised at Sherfield-on-Loddon (Hants), 25 November 1866. Educated at Eton, Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1886; BA 1891; MA 1894) and Inner Temple (admitted 1890; called 1894). Barrister-at-law on the Western circuit. DL and JP (from 1911) for Berkshire (Chairman of Wokingham Petty Sessions, 1931-44). He was an officer in the Royal Berkshire Regt. militia battalion, 1887-1917 (Lt-Col. commanding, 1909-17), and served in South African War and First World War (mentioned in despatches); he then went to France on the General Staff until 1920 and was appointed CBE, 1919. He was a member of the Thames Conservancy Board and a County Alderman of Berkshire County Council. He was keen on both cricket and hunting, serving as secretary of The Vyne Hunt for ten years and as Master of The Garth Foxhounds, 1928-31 (despite badly breaking his leg in an accident on his first day in the field as Master); he was also a freemason from 1889. He married, 17 July 1895 at Bramley (Hants), Lucile Mary (1872-1945), daughter of Cartmell Harrison of Bramley, and had issue:
(1) George Cartmell Barker (1896-1945), born 2 May 1896; educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1915; Lt., 1917; Capt., 1920; retired, 1930; returned to service, c.1939; Brev. Maj., 1943); Master of the Badsworth Foxhounds, 1934; married 1st, 29 June 1921 at Holy Trinity, Sloane St., London (div. 1935), Bridget Myfanwy Gian (1900-66) (who m2, 10 December 1935, Louis Philippe Mortimer de Carol de Moute, Baron de Moute (div. 1947)), second daughter of Edgar Lubbock, and had issue one daughter; married 2nd, 6 December 1935 at St Ethelburga, Bishopsgate, London, Irene Rachel MBE (1902-78), only daughter of Rev. William Heaton Elmhurst of Elmhurst, Barnsley (Yorks) and had issue two daughters; killed in a hunting accident, 23 October 1945; will proved 5 March 1946 (estate £929);
(2) Edgar Prescott Barker (1897-1986), born 19 July 1897; educated at Cheltenham College; an officer in the army (Maj.) in the First and Second World Wars; stud manager at King Edward Place, Wanborough (Wilts); married, 25 June 1931 at St Mark, North Audley St., London, Nancy (1902-97), eldest daughter of Alfred Allen Longsdon of Norman Court, Salisbury (Wilts) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 11 March 1986; will proved 20 June 1986 (estate under £40,000);
(3) Algernon Gresley Barker (1900-24), born 5 September 1900; educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; an officer in 60th Rifles (Lt.); died at Kuldana (India), 24 September 1924; commemorated by a monument in Ruscombe church; administration of his goods granted to his father, 2 April 1925 (estate £265);
(4) Gilbert Welch Barker (1906-66), born 28 January 1906; educated at Eton and in France; art historian and novelist; Librarian to St. John and Red Cross Hospitals Library Dept; appointed an officer of the Order of St John, 1956; lived at Twyford (Berks); died 31 October 1966; will proved 19 January 1967 (estate £49,356);
(5) Effie Lucile Barker (1912-97), born 16 February 1912; served with the British Red Cross in Germany after the Second World War and was one of the first to enter the Belsen Concentration Camp after its liberation; Master of The Garth Hunt, 1936-62 and merged Garth & South Berks Hunt, 1962-66; lived at Twyford (Berks); died unmarried, May 1997.
He moved into Stanlake Park soon after 1906 though he did not inherit it until his mother's death in 1923. It was sold in 1952, after his death.
He died 18 November 1951; his will was proved 6 February and 25 June 1952 (estate £68,688). His wife died 14 May 1945.

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1965, p. 47; VCH Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923, pp. 247-60; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2nd edn., 2010, pp. 338-39;

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive, although some papers may remain with the family. Earlier records of the Stanlake Park estate will be found in the Neville family papers in the Berkshire Record Office (D/EN) and Essex Archives (D/DBy).

Coat of arms

None recorded.

Can you help?

• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 21 August 2019 and was updated 22 August and 19 December 2019.

(387) Barker of Sonning Deanery, Hurst Lodge, and Grove House, Chiswick

Barker of Sonning

Around 1500, William Barker, with whom the genealogy below begins, was a merchant in London and was the first of the family to acquire property in Berkshire (at Wokingham). His younger son, Anthony, who was destined for the church, was already 'of Berkshire' when he went up to Oxford in 1517. William's eldest son, William Barker (d. 1549), probably had legal training and became the steward of the Bishop of Salisbury's manor of Sonning, which included a medieval bishop's palace of considerable size. William acquired leases of the bishop's parks at Sonning and also of the Rectory Manor, which had by custom become attached to the post of Dean of Salisbury Cathedral. These properties, which continued to be leased by the family throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, formed the nucleus of the family's property in Berkshire, and the rectory house at Sonning became their principal residence. William also acquired a property at Chiswick (Middx), which was probably part of the later Grove House estate. William had no sons, and he left his house in Chiswick to his brother, John Barker (d. c.1552) of Wokingham; and his property at Sonning to John's son, William Barker (c.1530-73), who was the first of many members of the family known to have been a lawyer at the Middle Temple. Regrettably, William (d. 1573) died relatively young, and his eldest son, another William, apparently died soon afterwards, so the family property devolved on Sir Anthony Barker (c.1558-1630). At this point the descent of the Sonning and Chiswick properties separates, for William (d. 1573) left the house at Chiswick to his widow, and she bequeathed it to their son Thomas Barker (c.1569-1630). The Sonning property descended to Sir Anthony's eldest son, William Barker (c.1596-1675), for whom a property at Stoke Talmage (Oxon) had previously been bought in 1623. William (d. 1675) was a barrister, who supported the Parliamentarian side during the Civil War and became a member of the Berkshire County Committee. He and his two wives were exceptionally unlucky with their children, almost all of whom died in his lifetime if not in infancy, and when he died his property at Stoke Talmage passed to his only surviving son by his second wife, William Barker, who died of smallpox in 1694, while the Sonning estate was divided between the two surviving daughters of his first marriage, Frances (fl. 1597), wife of Francis Woodward, and Anne (1648-1718), wife of Sir Pope Danvers, 2nd bt. The Sonning estate remained in two moieties until both were purchased by Robert Palmer in the mid 18th century and merged with his larger Sonning estate.

John Barker (d. c.1552) of Wokingham left his property in that parish to his second son, John Barker (c.1540-1621), who was Gentleman Usher to Queen Elizabeth for thirty-four years. It was probably he who acquired Hurst Lodge in the parish of Hurst (between Sonning and Wokingham), which was then an exclave of Wiltshire in the middle of Berkshire. This became the centre of the family's second Berkshire estate, and passed to John's eldest son, Henry Barker (c.1574-1651), who took the Royalist side in the Civil War, and whose estate had been sequestered by 1644. He must have recovered it, however, for he was succeeded in turn by his surviving sons, John Barker (1604-61) and William Barker (1609-85), who were both lawyers. William, who was a senior official of the court of Chancery and twice MP for Berkshire, became quite wealthy, and in 1664 he established a set of almshouses at Hurst which are still standing today. He married, but had no children, so at his death in 1685 the Hurst Lodge estate descended to his nephew, Henry Fairfax (1639-94), who married Anne, the daughter of the physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich. Henry Fairfax had no surviving sons, so at his death his property passed to his widow and then to their surviving daughter, Frances Fairfax (1680-1719), who was a considerable heiress. She subsequently married David Erskine (d. 1745), 4th Lord Cardross and 9th Earl of Buchan, who sold the estate in c. 1742 to the ubiquitous Robert Palmer (1713-87), who also acquired the family's Sonning estate.

The third branch of the family was that which settled at Chiswick. Anne, the widow of William Barker (c.1530-73) lived there until her death in 1607, and was succeeded by her son Thomas Barker (c.1569-1630), who was yet another Middle Temple barrister. In 1611 he also bought the manor of Buckhurst in Wokingham (now a Victorian house forming the core of a large hotel known as St Annes Manor; nothing is known of its predecessor), although he seems to have lived at Grove House in Chiswick or in his chambers at the Middle Temple. When he died in 1630, his Buckhurst property passed to his eldest son, William Barker, and the Chiswick estate to his second son, Thomas Barker (d. 1643). Thomas joined the Royalist army in the Civil War and was killed at the Battle of Lansdown near Bath in July 1643, and William must also have died for their brother Henry (or Harry) Barker (d. 1695) was in possession of both estates by 1660. Henry was another lawyer, and held the senior and lucrative post of Clerk of the Crown in Chancery from 1660-92, and the combination of his profession and his inheritances made him quite rich. He augmented his estate by buying further lands at Chiswick and also the manor of Clapcot near Wallingford (Berks). His only recorded child seems to have been his son, Scorey Barker (c.1652-1713), whose unusual forename was his maternal grandmother's maiden name. Scorey Barker, who was again a Middle Temple lawyer, inherited all his father's property and became an MP, first for Wallingford in 1679-81 and later for Middlesex, 1705-10. It was probably he who rebuilt or remodelled Grove House at Chiswick. He had a large family of sixteen children, most of whom were still alive at his death, although few of their careers can be traced with any confidence. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry Barker (1680-1745), who attended the Middle Temple but does not seem to have qualified as a barrister. He tried four times to be elected as MP for Middlesex and failed every time. The expense of these contested elections, together with the portions of his siblings, the costs of his own large family, and the fact that he did not have a professional income, led him quickly into debt. In 1727 he sold Buckhurst at Wokingham, and his will left the Chiswick estate to trustees who sold it for the benefit of his creditors and his family. Grove House itself went to the Earl of Grantham, who remodelled the house, while some of the land was sold to the Duke of Devonshire, whose Chiswick House property adjoined the Grove. His eldest son, Henry Barker (1711-75) managed to hang on to the manor of Clapcot, and moved to Wallingford, but most of his siblings continued to live, unmarried, in and around the Chiswick area until their deaths. Clapcot seems to have passed to a nephew, Henry Thomas Barker, who held it in 1813, but it was sold soon afterwards to the Lybbe-Powys family.

The Deanery alias Deanery Garden, Sonning, Berkshire

Rather little can be said with any confidence about the original house on this site. It was the manor house of the Rectory Manor in Sonning, which was included among the foundation endowments of Salisbury Cathedral in 1091, and by 1220 the Deans of Salisbury were rectors ex officio and were appointing a vicar to undertake the services in the parish church. At about that time a plot of land between the church and the river was granted for the purpose of building a vicarage, and it remained in use for this purpose into the 20th century; the present building has 17th century origins but has been much modernised. The rectory, the building under consideration here, which became known as The Deanery through being held by successive Deans of Salisbury, stood a little further west, occupying a large site between the church and Thames Street, the road which runs down to Sonning Bridge. 

The Deanery, Sonning: the house as depicted on an estate map of 1752.
Image: © Berkshire Archaeological Society.

The Deanery thus clearly had medieval origins, and was probably used from time to time by the medieval Deans of Salisbury, but by 1535 the rectory manor was on a long lease to William Barker, the steward of the Bishop of Salisbury's manor of Sonning, and it seems likely that he rebuilt the property at about this time. The site is still enclosed on three sides by a 16th century brick boundary wall which was no doubt part of the same campaign. Our only view of the house is a miniature sketch, possibly somewhat formalised, on an estate plan of 1752. This appears to show a house of modest scale with a central hall and projecting cross-wings at either end, which is consistent with the standard arrangement of manor houses at this time. Only the end elevation can be seen clearly, and this appears to be of three bays, with a central doorway on the ground floor; the regularity of the facade is suggestive of later alterations to the house in the 17th or 18th century.

The house shown on the estate map is said to have been demolished in 1780 and replaced by a new house, which appears not to have been recorded at all. If it ever existed, it had been demolished by 1872-75, when the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 6" map was surveyed. In 1900-01, by which time  the Thames-side village of Sonning had become popular as a picturesque weekend retreat for wealthy Londoners, it became the site of the famous house designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for Edward Hudson, the founder-proprietor of Country Life magazine. For John Piper, the house which Lutyens built 'is very much in character with the village, and in its picturesque solidity and in its feeling of comfort in rich simplicity it was a revolutionary and influential essay'. Christopher Hussey called it 'a perfect architectural sonnet... Its theme, a romantic bachelor's idyllic afternoons beside a Thames backwater'.

The house is of red brick and consisted originally of a main block on or near the site of the medieval rectory and the Barkers' house. It looks south towards the churchyard, with wings projecting back to the ancient garden wall along the street, which Lutyens carefully preserved. The entrance was through a very small arched doorway in this wall into a low arcaded space with a clever groin vault in chalk with brick stripes. Straight ahead is the front door of the house proper, to the left an access into the garden, while on the right there is an inner courtyard with a small pool that seems to magnify the impact of the changing seasons and weather outside.

Deanery Garden: the house from the south-east.

The main front of the house faces south but where most houses would be so arranged as to have a flat terrace on the garden side, the south front here looks out over split levels, and this is an important part of the way the house keeps you guessing and jolts your expectations. The south front is of two storeys, with a long red tiled roof and a strip of narrow windows on the first floor. The principal feature is the huge bay window of the hall, which in scale is reminiscent of the 16th century one at Stanway Manor (Glos), having forty-eight lights set in wooden mullions and transoms. This window is axially placed in the centre of the facade, but the strength of the massive chimneystack and the arched garden door to its right creates a visual tension that stops this being readily apparent. Around the corner, the east wing has a gable-end with much exposed timber over a canted bay (which it is hard not to read as a face) and to the right, over the round-arched opening to the courtyard, is a second much plainer gable. A bay was added west of the main front in c.1912, to Lutyens' designs, for C.W. Christie-Miller, who bought the house when Edward Hudson moved on to Lindisfarne Castle and other projects. West of this again is another large brick extension of c.1927, emphatically not by Lutyens, but placed so as not to spoil the visual integrity of the original house.

Deanery Garden: plan of the house in 1921.

Deanery Garden: the hall in 1921.

Inside, Hudson's house was not large by Edwardian standards: there were only three reception rooms (the dining room, living hall and sitting room) in the main block. Of these the hall, occupying the full height of house and dominated by the great bay window, is the most impressive. It has an open timber roof and curved wind-braces on the east and west walls. In the east wing, next to the entrance passage, is a wooden staircase with heavy balusters and carved newels, and a complex timber roof. It leads to a gallery, cantilevered over the inner courtyard and roofed with roughly-cut timbers which flanks the hall on the north and allows views into it.

The garden was designed by Lutyens in combination with Gertrude Jekyll; his immensely architectural hard landscaping being softened by her herbaceous planting. From the clever connection of the little internal courtyard to the garden, to the way the axial layout in aligned on the relatively insignificant garden door rather than the central bay window of the south front, the garden like the house never does quite what is expected. And all the familiar Lutyens garden tropes are worked in: the paved courtyard, the circular pool, the narrow canal. The house's celebrity is due partly to Edward Hudson's assiduous publication of it in Country Life and other magazines as part of his campaign to promote Lutyens as an architect. It came to be recognised as one of Lutyens' great houses (it is one of my favourites), and it has attracted a string of celebrity owners, most recently Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin guitarist. In the 1980s the interior timbers were painted white (prompting Country Life to thunder "All white is not all right") and the garden was restored by Marian Thompson.

Descent: Dean & Chapter of Salisbury leased 1535 to William Barker (d. 1549); to nephew, William Barker (c.1530-73); to son, Sir Anthony Barker (c.1558-1630); to son, William Barker (c.1596-1675), who renewed the lease; to daughters, Anne (1644-1718), wife of Sir Pope Danvers (1644-1712), 2nd bt. and Frances (b. 1639), wife of Richard Howse (1629-68) and later of Francis Woodward. The Danvers moiety passed to Anne's second son, Daniel Danvers and to his daughter Martha, wife of Daniel Rich, from whom it was bought in 1762 by Robert Palmer (1713-87). The Howse/Woodward moiety passed to Frances' daughter Mary, wife of Sir William Kenrick, by whose daughters and their husbands it was ultimately sold to Palmer. It subsequently passed to his son, Richard Palmer (1765-1806) and then to his son, Robert Palmer (d. 1872); to brother, Rev. Richard Palmer; to sister, Susanna Caroline Palmer (d. 1880); to nephew, Rev. Henry Golding (later Golding Palmer) (d. 1897); to cousin, Mrs. Ruth Wade, wife of Fairfax Wade, architect, who sold c.1900 to Edward Hudson; sold c.1909 to Charles W. Christie-Miller; sold to Hon. Mrs. Thorne (fl. 1939)... sold before 1958 to Lt.-Col. S. D. H. Pollen (d. 1970); to widow; sold 1974 to Sir Nigel Broakes (c.1934-99); sold c.1988 to Stanley J. Seeger (1930-2011); sold c.1994... sold to Jimmy Page (b. 1944).

Hurst Lodge, St Nicholas Hurst, Berkshire

Hurst Lodge: the house from the east in the mid 20th century, showing the brick gable-ends of the 17th century part of the house.

The earliest part of the present building is probably represented by the two brick gable-ends of different profiles which are visible on the south-east flank of the house, which undoubtedly belong to the time of the Barkers. The look of the brickwork suggests they are early 17th century rather than earlier, and so they may represent a rebuilding of the house by John Barker (d. 1620) after his retirement from office as Gentleman Usher to Queen Elizabeth, or by his son and successor, Henry Barker (c.1574-1651). They are likely to represent the cross-wings of a small hall house, but later alterations have now obscured all trace of the original internal arrangement. 

Hurst Lodge: the mid 18th century front, perhaps added for Robert Palmer (1713-87).

In the mid 18th century, a new five bay brick front with a three-bay pediment was built onto the south-west of the earlier house. This was probably built for Robert Palmer (1713-87), a lawyer who later became land agent to the Dukes of Bedford after he bought the property in 1742. The house was further altered in the 1920s for Sir Philip Martineau, when the interior was remodelled to create a large entertaining room with a very fine late 17th century-style chimneypiece. This occupies the gabled single-storeyed block between the 17th century gables, which is often stated to have been built in the 1920s, but it is in fact earlier as it clearly appears in a 19th century sketch of the house. In the early 21st century the house was thoroughly internally refitted and redecorated in a contemporary style.

Descent: John Barker (c.1540-1621); to son, Henry Barker (1574-1651); to son, John Barker (1604-61); to brother, William Barker (1609-85); to nephew, Henry Fairfax (1639-94); to daughter, Frances (1680-1719), wife of David Erskine (d. 1745), 4th Lord Cardross and later 9th  Earl of Buchan, who sold c.1742 to Robert Palmer (1713-87); to son, Richard Palmer (1765-1806) and then to his son, Robert Palmer (d. 1872); to brother, Rev. Richard Palmer; to sister, Susanna Caroline Palmer (d. 1880); to nephew, Rev. Henry Golding (later Golding Palmer) (d. 1897); to cousin, Mrs. Ruth Wade, wife of Fairfax Wade, architect, who sold c. 1908 to Sir Philip Hubert Martineau (1862-1944), kt.; sold c.1939 to James Edward Palmer-Tomkinson (né Tomkinson) (1879-1961); to daughter, Jane Lindsay (1913-89), wife of Sir Herbert Ingram (1912-80), 3rd bt.; sold after her death; sold 2002; sold 2018.

Grove House, Chiswick, Middlesex

The early history of this property is fairly obscure, but it may have existed as an identifiable unit as early as 1202, and there was a house of some sort here by 1412. By 1597 it belonged to St Paul's Cathedral and was let on a long lease to the Barker family, but since William Barker, in his will of 1549, mentions 'my house in Chiswick', it is likely that he already held the estate at that date. What was described as 'Tudor oak panelling' was found behind later plasterwork when the house was demolished in the 1920s, so it seems very probable that the later Grove House was a result of progressive remodelling of a Tudor house first built by the Barkers. Our first definite record of there being a mansion house at The Grove comes, however, from a survey of 1658 among the Chiswick parish records; and a few years later, in 1664, it was taxed on 15 hearths, confirming that it was already a substantial building. John Bowack, writing in 1705, describes the house as a 'spacious regular modern building... behind it gardens, said by some to be the finest in England', and the earliest visual record of the house, an engraving of c.1787, strongly suggests that there was a major remodelling in the late 17th century, perhaps after Scorey Barker (c.1652-1713) inherited it in 1695. John Rocque's plan of the area shows a formal landscape of some complexity attached to the house, and Daniel Lysons, writing in 1810 tells us that the paddock of Grove House 'abounds with a great number of old walnut trees and Spanish chestnuts', which perhaps dated from this time, and a few of the ancient chestnuts still survive today.

Grove House, Chiswick: the house in about 1787.

The late 17th century remodelling of the house produced a three-storey brick house with projecting wings, between which a pedimented portico in antis was inserted later. This is unlikely to have happened as early as 1711, when it is known that there were further works in progress (a datestone for that year was let into the floor in one of the rooms), and it was probably part of the alterations carried out for Lord Grantham after he bought the estate in about 1747.

Grove House, Chiswick: the library chimneypiece in 1923.
Image: Chiswick Local Studies Library.

The work of the 1740s very probably also included the redecoration of the library, as a photograph of 1923 shows an extremely fine carved chimneypiece of that period in a room with matching plasterwork cornice and elaborately moulded plaster drops on the walls. It seems likely that Lord Grantham's alterations also account for the Venetian window on the west front of the house (which lit the staircase) and the boldly rusticated arched doorway on the south front. It has been suggested that an increase in the rating valuation of the house in 1749 may be linked to the completion of Lord Grantham's alterations, although such revaluations are generally a poor marker of architectural changes.

Daniel Lysons records that 'considerable additions' were made to the house by Humphry Morice, who had previously installed rich Rococo interiors at Werrington House in Devon (now Cornwall), so he must be an alternative candidate for the mid 18th century alterations, although their Rococo style would have been distinctly dated in metropolitan Middlesex by the time that he acquired the estate in 1776. He also built the large stables (designed to accommodate 30 horses) to accommodate the old horses and dogs he collected, who were cared for and allowed to live out their natural lives at Grove House, and not treated with the casual cruelty that was the lot of most animals at this time. He made provision in his will for his heiress, Mrs. Lavinia Luther, to continue to look after these animals, as a condition of her inheritance, which she did faithfully, even though there was only one old horse left by 1806.

Grove House, Chiswick: the north (entrance) front of the house shortly before demolition in the 1920s.

The next changes were made after the estate was purchased by the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1831. The Duke owned the adjoining Chiswick House estate and was presumably more interested in the land attached to Grove House than in the house itself. He brought in Decimus Burton, who was engaged on other projects for him at the time, and Burton removed the top storey of the 17th century house and stuccoed over the brick walls of the older part of the building, considerably changing its appearance. The house was subsequently let out (the first tenant being Decimus Burton's brother Septimus) until it was sold in 1872. By then, successive dukes had developed much of the land attached to Grove House as the Grove Park estate. After the death of the last private owner in 1928 the house was demolished, and Kinnaird Avenue now stands on its site. The contractors for the demolition of the house were Messrs. Crowthers Ltd., key players in the architectural salvage business, and there are persistent rumours that the building was dismantled brick by brick and re-erected in the USA. This seems unlikely, not least because the library chimneypiece found its way into the composite 'Quinn Room' acquired by the Huntington Library at San Marino, California, which sold it only a few years ago. The rebuild story was, however, given some tantalising support about thirty years ago, when a local resident is said to have been told by an American friend that she had tracked the house down and to have been sent a photograph of it. Unfortunately the man concerned died, and his papers were destroyed, before local historians could learn more.

Descent: William Barker (d. 1549); to brother, John Barker (d. c.1552); to son, William Barker (c.1530-73); to widow, Anne Barker (d. 1607); to son, Thomas Barker (c.1569-1630); to son, Thomas Barker (d. 1643); to brother, Henry Barker (d. 1695); to son, Scorey Barker (c.1652-1713); to son, Henry Barker (1680-1745); sold c.1747 to Henry d'Auverquerque (d. 1754), Earl of Grantham; to daughter Frances (d. 1772), wife of Col. William Eliott; sold as freehold in 1776 to Humphry Morice (1723-85); to Mrs. Lavinia Luther; sold c.1810 to Canon Robert Lowth (d. 1822); to widow; sold c.1831 to 6th Duke of Devonshire who leased it to tenants including Septimus Burton, Richard Gurney (fl. 1844-53), Joseph Gurney (fl. 1855), Dr. Cowan (fl. 1856-61), Robert Prowett (fl. 1861-70) and John Pullman (fl. 1870-72); sold 1872 to John Pullman; sold 1898 to Lt-Col. Robert Shipway (d. 1928) after which is was demolished for house building. 

Barker family of Sonning

Barker, William. Parentage unknown. Merchant in London. Married Anne, daughter and co-heir of William Burley, and had issue including:
(1) William Barker (d. 1549) (q.v.);
(2) John Barker (d. c.1552) (q.v.);
(3) Rev. Anthony Barker (d. 1553); educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (admitted 1517; Fellow, 1519; MA 1523), vicar of Binfield and Sonning; will proved 20 June 1553;
(4) Ambrose Barker (d. 1560) of London and Chignal (Essex), merchant; married Mary Carter and had issue nineteen children; buried at Barking (Essex), 28 December 1560;
(5) Leonard Barker (d. 1551), merchant in London; married Elizabeth [surname unknown] (d. 1594) (who m2, 1552, John Isham of Lamport Hall and had further issue six or seven sons and one or two daughters) and had issue two sons; buried at St Martin Pomeroy, London, 6 December 1551; will proved 4 February 1551/2.
He lived at Wokingham (Berks).
His date of death is unknown. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barker, William (d. 1549). Eldest son of William Barker of Wokingham. Steward of the Bishop of Salisbury's manor of Sonning. He married Anne Throckmorton, and had issue:
(1) Anne Barker (d. 1585); married 1st, before 1549, William Brydges, with whom she eloped while betrothed to Simon Cornthwaite, resulting in a legal dispute; married 2nd, c.1555, William Stafferton or Staverton (d. 1585) of Wokingham (Berks) and had issue four sons; died 21 September 1585 and was buried at Sonning, where she is commemorated by a monument;
He acquired leases of the Rectory Manor and the Holme Park and East Park at Sonning from the Bishop of Salisbury. He also owned a house at Chiswick (Middx), which he left to his brother John.
He died 18 September 1549 and was buried at Sonning, where he is commemorated by a brass; his will was proved 4 June 1551. His widow was living in 1551 but her date of death is unknown.

Barker, John (d. c.1552). Second son of William Barker of Wokingham. He married Anne/Agnes, daughter of William Martin of Wokingham (Berks) and had issue:
(1) William Barker (c.1530-73) (q.v.);
(2) Anne Barker (fl. 1552);
(3) Bridget Barker (fl. 1552);
(4) John Barker (c.1540-1621) [for whom see below, Barker family of Hurst]
(5) Thomas Barker (fl. 1552).
(6) Anthony Barker (d. 1615?); possibly the man of this name buried at Sonning, 3 August 1615;
(7) Elizabeth Barker (fl. 1561); married, before 1551, Thomas Hide (d. 1562) of Hurst, second son of William Hyde of Denchworth (Berks), and had issue at least three sons.
He lived at Wokingham (Berks) and inherited a house at Chiswick from his brother William.
He died between 25 August 1551 and 11 May 1552 and was buried at Sonning; his will was proved 11 May 1552. His widow survived him but her date of death is unknown.

Barker, William (c.1530-73). Eldest son of John Barker (d. c.1552) of Wokingham and his wife Anne/Agnes, daughter of Edward Martin of Shinfield (Berks), born about 1530. Educated at Middle Temple (Fellow). He married, c.1552, Anne (d. 1607), daughter of Lawrence Stoughton of Stoughton (Surrey), and had issue:
(1) Anne Barker (fl. 1573); married Henry Samborne (d. 1623) of Moulsford (Berks) and had issue;
(2) Katherine Barker (c.1554-1630); married 1st, William Yonge (d. 1584) of Basildon (Berks), and had issue one son (Sir William Yonge (d. 1618), 1st bt.); married 2nd, her cousin, Sir Christopher Litcott (d. 1599), kt. but had no further issue; died 17 January 1630 and was buried at Sonning, where she is commemorated by a monument;
(3) William Barker; died young before 1588 and probably c.1576 as his father's will stipulated he should be sent to the Middle Temple but he was never admitted;
(4) Elizabeth Barker (fl. 1573); probably died unmarried;
(5) Sir Anthony Barker (c.1558-1630) (q.v.);
(6) John Barker (c.1564-95); educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1581) and Middle Temple (admitted 1582); buried at Godalming, 15 August 1595, where he is commemorated by a brass;
(7) Mary Barker (d. 1600); married, before 1587, Lawrence Elliot (c.1550-1619) of Busbridge (Surrey), and had issue seven sons and one daughter; buried at Godalming (Surrey), 16 November 1600;
(8) Jane Barker (fl. 1573); probably died unmarried;
(9) Richard Barker (b. c.1567; fl. 1634); probably the man of this name who was educated at Broadgates Hall (matriculated 1581/2); married Mary (d. 1599), daughter of John Litcott esq., and had issue five children of whom one son and one daughter were living in 1599; living in 1634;
(10) Thomas Barker (c.1569-1630) [for whom see Barker of Grove House, below];
(11) Edward Barker (c.1571-1636); educated at New Inn, London and Middle Temple (admitted 1591); married, but had no surviving issue; will proved 4 February 1636/7.
He inherited his uncle's leases of Sonning Rectory and the Holme and East Parks at Sonning in 1549. He inherited the house at Chiswick from his father c.1552, and left this to his widow, who appears to have bequeathed it to their son Thomas.
He died 25 August 1573 and was buried at Sonning; his will was proved 17 November 1573. His widow was buried at Chiswick in 1607; her will was proved 2 July 1607.

Barker, Sir Anthony (c.1558-1630). Eldest surviving son of William Barker (c.1530-73) and his wife Anne Stoughton, born about 1558. Escheator for Oxfordshire and Berkshire, 1598; commissioner for swans, Oxford circuit, 1606-15; knighted by King James I at Whitehall, 30 March 1608; High Sheriff of Berkshire, 1609-10; JP (from 1614) and DL (from 1623) for Berkshire; MP for Reading, 1621. He married 1st, c.1594, Jane (1570-1610), daughter of Edward Eldrington of Birch Hall, Theydon Bois (Essex) and 2nd, 13 February 1625/6 at St Dunstan-in-the-East or Christ Church, Newgate*, London, Anne Inglishe (d. 1657), and had issue:
(1.1) William Barker (c.1596-1675) (q.v.);
(1.2) Dorothy Barker (c.1597-1602); died aged five and was buried at Sonning, 1 May 1602;
(1.3) Henry Barker (1598-1633), baptised at Sonning, 13 August 1598; educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1615); died in his 37th year and was buried at Sonning, 4 October 1633;
(1.4) Rev. Nathaniel Barker (1600-65), baptised at Sonning, April 1600; educated at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1618; BA 1621) and Hart Hall, Oxford (MA 1624); rector of Stoke Talmage (Oxon), 1630-47 and c.1664-death; his relations with his parishioners were troubled before the Civil War and he became an ardent Royalist; after the parliamentary victory he was sequestered in 1647 for scandal of life, superstition, and delinquency, being charged with enlisting in the Royalist army and living as a soldier in Oxford, ordering Royalist soldiers to plunder some of his Parliamentarian parishioners and of having them removed to Boarstall House until he had extracted £200 from them; he was also said to have vexed his parishioners with tithe prosecutions; to have read out in church a 'book of curses against Parliament'; to have read 'Royal proclamations clearly but Parliament's unintelligibly'; and to have 'frequently entertayned lewd roguish fellows from Wallingford Garrison' in ale-houses with his wife and daughter; he was obliged to borrow £400 from his brother-in-law, the Rev. Bartholomew Price, rector of Holton (Oxon), who in 1652 petitioned to be given Barker's estate as security for the debt; in 1655, however, the County Committee denied ever having had the management of his estate; he did not immediately recover his living at the Restoration but was again in possession by 1664; he married, 2 November 1631 at Stadhampton (Oxon), Mary Franklin, and had issue at least one son and one daughter; buried at St Paul, Covent Garden, London, 9 December 1665;
(1.5) Frances Barker (1601-49), baptised at Sonning, 25 October 1601; died unmarried, 1649;
(1.6) Theophilus Barker (1603-18), baptised at Sonning, 1 May 1603; died unmarried and was buried at Sonning, 24 May 1618;
(1.7) Anthony Barker (1604-67), baptised at Sonning, 15 April 1604; educated at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1623; BA 1625/6) and Middle Temple (admitted 1625/6; called 1633; bencher 1654; reader, 1662; treasurer, 1666); JP for Berkshire; Recorder of Wallingford, 1640; elected MP for Wallingford, 1640, but the election was declared void, 1641; married Frances Knight (d. 1640) of Chawton (Hants), and had issue one son and two daughters; buried at Sonning, 25 January 1666/7;
(1.8) Jane Barker (1605-40), baptised at Sonning, 12 May 1605; married, 14 October 1630 at Sonning, Edward Fowell alias Vowell (1598-1664), lawyer and later MP (who m2, before 1647, Alice, daughter of Sir Francis Glanville and widow of John Connock of Harewood, Calstock (Cornw.) and had further issue), son of John Fowell of Plymouth, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 1640;
(1.9) Lettice Barker (1606-73), baptised at Sonning, 7 September 1606; married, 24 October 1647 at Sonning, Capt. Thomas Crosse; buried at Sonning, 31 March 1673;
(1.10) Lawrence Barker (b. 1608), baptised at Sonning, 24 April 1608; died before 1649;
(1.11) Anne Barker (1610-34), baptised at Sonning, 3 February 1609/10; died 22 August 1634 and was buried at Sonning.
He inherited his father's leases of Sonning Rectory and the Holme and East Parks at Sonning.
He died in his 72nd year and was buried at Sonning, 2 April 1630, where he is commemorated by a large brass erected by his son; his will was proved 15 April 1630. His first wife was buried at Sonning, 16 February 1609/10. His widow was buried at Sonning, 20 July 1657.
* The event is registered at both churches.

Barker, William (c.1596-1675). Eldest son of Sir Anthony Barker (c.1558-1630) and his first wife Jane, daughter of Edward Eldrington of Birch Hall, Theydon Bois (Essex), born about 1596. Educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1615) and Middle Temple (admitted 1614/5; called to bar; bencher, 1650; treasurer, 1656). Barrister-at-law; JP for Berkshire; High Sheriff of Berkshire, 1635. He was a member of the County Committee for Berkshire, 1647-60. He married 1st, probably 27 July 1630 at St Nicholas, Ipswich (Suffk), Mary (d. 1662), daughter and co-heir of William Briden of Ipswich (Suffk), and 2nd, 1668 (licence 2 June), Frances Tedman (c.1628-89), and had issue:
(1.1) William Barker (1631-34); died young and was buried at Sonning, 24 April 1634;
(1.2) Henry Barker (1633-35), baptised at Sonning, 8 August 1733; died in infancy, and was buried at Sonning, 28 March 1635;
(1.3) John Barker (c.1634-64); educated at Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 1652) and Middle Temple (admitted 1651/2; called 1659); barrister-at-law; buried at Sonning, 20 September 1664;
(1.4) Anthony Barker (1636-47), baptised at Sonning, 16 August 1636; died young, 16 September, and was buried at Sonning, 26 September 1647;
(1.5) Mary Barker (1637-49), baptised at Sonning, 13 August 1637; died young and was buried at Sonning, 17 June 1649;
(1.6) Thomas Barker (b. 1638), baptised at Sonning, 2 September 1638; died young;
(1.7) Frances Barker (b. 1639; fl. 1697), baptised at Sonning, 11 September 1639; ultimately co-heiress of her father; married 1st, 1 January 1663 at Sonning, Richard Howse (c.1629-68) of Whitley (Berks) and had issue one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 1674 at Binfield, Francis Woodward (d. 1692) of Reading;
(1.8) William Barker (1640-45), baptised at Sonning, 1 September 1640; died young and was buried at Sonning, 21 March 1644/5;
(1.9) Anne Barker (1644-1718), baptised at Sonning, 29 March 1644; ultimately co-heiress of her father; married, 14 January 1668/9 at Sonning, Sir Pope Danvers (1644-1712), 2nd bt., of Culworth (Northants) and had issue five sons and five daughters; buried at Culworth, 16 May 1718; will proved 20 May 1718;
(1.10) Elizabeth Barker (1646-60), baptised at Sonning, 14 January 1645/6; died young and was buried at Sonning, 9 February 1659/60;
(1.11) Robert Barker (1648-68), baptised at Sonning, 30 August 1648; died unmarried and was buried at Sonning, 18 May 1668;
(1.12) Thomas Barker (b. & d. 1650), baptised at Sonning, 3 May 1650; died in infancy and was buried at Sonning, 3 August 1650;
(2.1) Anthony Barker (1669-70), baptised at Sonning, 9 September 1669; died in infancy and was buried at Sonning, 26 March 1670;
(2.2) William Barker (1671-94), baptised at Sonning, 11 January 1671/2; inherited his father's manor of Stoke Talmage in 1675 and came of age in 1692; educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1690); died of smallpox and was buried at Sonning, 25 August 1694;
(2.3) Anthony Barker (1673-74), baptised at Sonning, 22 May 1673; died in infancy and was buried at Sonning, 14 March 1673/4.
He inherited his father's leases of Sonning Rectory and the Holme and East Parks at Sonning; at his death this property passed to his two surviving daughters by his first marriage as co-heiresses and remained in two moieties until both halves were purchased by Robert Palmer in the mid 18th century. In 1623 he bought the manor and advowson of Stoke Talmage which he settled on his surviving son by his second marriage; when the latter died without issue this also passed to his half-sisters and passed out of the family in the 18th century.
He was buried at Sonning, 9 December 1675, where he is commemorated on his father's monument (now hidden by the organ); his will was proved 1 February 1675/6. His first wife was buried at Sonning, 9 April 1662. His widow was buried at Sonning, 4 November 1689.

Barker family of Hurst

Barker, John (c.1540-1621). Second son of John Barker (d. c.1552) of Wokingham and his wife Anne/Agnes, daughter of Edward Martin of Shinfield (Berks), born about 1540. Gentleman Usher to Queen Elizabeth for 34 years. He married, c.1568, Frances, daughter of Henry Manfield of Amerden House, Taplow (Bucks) and had issue:
(1) Henry Barker (c.1574-1651) (q.v.);
(2) John Barker (d. 1639); married, 18 December 1608 at Shottesbrooke (Berks), Mary, daughter of Henry Powle MP of Cirencester (Glos) and had issue two sons; buried at Hurst, 2 March 1638/9;
(3) Thomas Barker; died before 1617;
(4) Frances Barker; married [forename unknown] Wells and had issue two daughters; died before 1617;
(5) Jane Barker; married, 3 June 1605 at Ealing (Middx), Richard Rolls of Lewknor (Oxon); living in 1617;
(6) Ann Barker (d. 1589); died young;
(7) Mary Barker (1580-98), baptised at Hurst, 26 March 1580; died unmarried and was buried at Hurst, 5 January 1598/9;
(8) Elizabeth Barker (1581-1638), baptised at Hurst, 13 August 1581; married Bartholomew Tipping (d. 1656/8) of Chequers, Stokenchurch (Oxon) and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 16 September 1638.
He inherited his father's property at Wokingham and probably acquired the Hurst Lodge estate.
He died 23 January 1620/1 and was buried at Hurst; his will was proved 5 February 1620/1. His widow survived him but her date of death is unknown.

Barker, Henry (c.1574-1651). Eldest son of John Barker (c.1540-1621) of Hurst, and his wife Frances, daughter of Henry Manfield of Amerden House, Taplow (Bucks), born about 1574. He was a Royalist in the Civil War and his estate was sequestrated in or before 1644. He married Magdalen (d. 1632), daughter of William Cade esq. of Romford (Essex), and had issue:
(1) John Barker (1604-61), baptised at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), 11 May 1604; educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (matriculated 1624) and Middle Temple (admitted 1624); married Elizabeth [surname unknown] (d. 1677) and had issue; buried at Hurst, 19 September 1661; will proved 1 October 1661;
(2) Frances Barker (1605-69) (q.v.).

(3) Henry Barker (b. & d. 1607), baptised at Hurst, 26 March 1607; died in infancy;

(4) Henry Barker (b. 1608), baptised at Hurst, 3 October 1608; educated at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1623; BA 1625/6; MA 1628); incorporated at Cambridge, 1634; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford 1631-48 (when expelled by the Parliamentarian government);
(5) William Barker (1609-85), baptised at Hurst, 26 October 1609; a clerk in the court of Chancery from c.1629 and Cursitor there, 1638-53, 1654-85; JP for Middlesex, 1667-70, 1674-76 and for Norfolk, 1676-82; MP for Berkshire, 1679, 1681; he lived at New Prison Walk, Clerkenwell and at Hurst, and in 1664 he built and endowed a set of almshouses at Hurst which are still standing; married, 26 July 1660 at St Margaret Pattens, London, Frances (d. 1689), daughter and co-heir of William Hobart of Metton (Norfk) and widow of James Davey of Southampton, but had no issue; died 25 March and was buried at Hurst, 4 April 1685;
He inherited Hurst Lodge from his father in 1621, and was succeeded in turn by his oldest and youngest sons, and then by his grandson, Henry Fairfax.
He died 27 June, and was buried at Hurst, 4 July 1651, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 11 August 1651. His wife was buried at Hurst, 25 July 1632.

Barker, Frances (1605-69). Only recorded daughter of Henry Barker (c.1574-1651) and his wife Magdalen, daughter of William Cade, baptised at Hurst, 4 July 1605. She married, 1637/8 (settlement 21 January), probably as his second wife, Henry Fairfax (c.1601-50) of Bridlington (Yorks ER), second son of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Viscount Fairfax, and had issue:
(1) John Fairfax (b. c.1638); mentioned in his father's will but evidently died young;
(2) Henry Fairfax (1639-94) (q.v.);
(3) Frances Fairfax (1640-1703), baptised at Hurst, 1640; married, 1662 (licence 29 July), Clement Herne (d. 1721) of Haveringland (Norfk), and had issue one son; buried at Haveringland, 16 May 1703.
Her husband owned the rectory estate at Bridlington and also had homes in London, at Clerkenwell and later at Hammersmith (Middx). She lived latterly at Hurst.
She was buried at Hurst, 25 March 1669. Her husband died 4 July 1650 and was buried at Hurst, 12 July 1650, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 7 August 1650, and mentions an older son (Thomas), who was probably born to a previous marriage.

Fairfax, Henry (1639-94). Son of Henry Fairfax (d. 1650) of Bridlington (Yorks) and his wife Frances, only recorded daughter of Henry Barker (1574-1650/1), baptised at Hurst, 2 September 1639. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1655) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1656). His father-in-law noted that he was 'one who must have drinck and company'. He married, c.1669, Ann (d. 1698), daughter of Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), physician and author of Religio Medici, and had issue, reputedly with two further children, who died young:
(1) Barker Fairfax (b. & d. 1670), baptised at St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, 30 August 1670; died in infancy and was buried at the same church, 5 September 1670;
(2) Frances Fairfax (c.1673-78); died young, 15 September 1678 and was buried at Hurst, 16 September 1678, where she is commemorated on a monument.
(3) Ann Alethea Fairfax (b. & d. 1679), baptised at Shiplake (Oxon), 19 March 1678/9; died young and was buried at Hurst, 31 December 1679
(4) Frances Fairfax (1680-1719), baptised at Hurst, 26 November 1680; married, 11 February 1697, David Erskine (d. 1745), 4th Lord Cardross and later 9th  Earl of Buchan (who m2, 15 September 1743, Isabella (d. 1763), daughter of Sir William Blackett, 1st bt. of Wallington (Northbld.)) and had issue seven sons and two daughters;
(5) William Fairfax (1682-84), baptised at Hurst, 20 June 1682; died in infancy, 27 July 1684 and was buried at Hurst, 28 July 1684, where he is commemorated by a monument;
(6) Alethea Fairfax (1685-1704), baptised at Hurst, 16 July 1685; married at the age of 12/13*, 17 April 1698 at Northfleet (Kent), Dr. Thomas Browne MD (1673-1710), son of Edward Browne MD and grandson of Sir Thomas Browne; buried at Hurst, 30 March 1704.
He inherited Hurst Lodge from his uncle, William Barker, in 1685. At his death it passed to his daughter and her husband, and was sold.
He was buried at Hurst, 16 June 1694. His wife died 2 April and was buried at Hurst, 4 April 1698.
* Since the marriage took place just a fortnight after Alethea was orphaned, it may have been protective in intent.

Barker of Grove House, Chiswick 

Barker, Thomas (c.1569-1630). Fifth son of William Barker (c.1530-73) and his wife Anne, daughter of Lawrence Stoughton of Stoughton (Surrey), born about 1569. Educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1581; BA 1584) and Middle Temple (admitted 1587; called 1594; bencher, 1614; reader, 1614; treasurer, 1623). Barrister-at-law; JP for Middlesex. He was active in parish government at Chiswick in the 1620s. He married Mary, daughter of Valentine Saunders, one of the six Clerks in Chancery, and had issue:
(1) William Barker (fl. 1629-49); educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1629; called 1649); inherited his father's property at Wokingham (Berks) in 1630; 
(2) Thomas Barker (d. 1643) (q.v.);
(3) Henry (k/a Harry) Barker (c.1624-95) (q.v.);
(4) Anne Barker (fl. 1643);
(5) Mary Barker (fl. 1643); married Edward Woodcock (1617-59) and had issue two daughters;
(6) Jane Baker (fl. 1634);
(7) Katherine Barker (fl. 1634);
(8) Elizabeth Barker (d. 1688); married, as his third wife, James Clitherow (1618-82) of Boston Manor, Brentford (Middx) and had issue one son and two daughters; died 24 April 1688 and was buried at Brentford, where she was commemorated on her husband's monument.
He inherited Grove House, Chiswick from his mother in 1607, and purchased the manor of Buckhhurst at Wokingham (Berks).
He died 3 April 1630 and was buried at Chiswick (Middx), where he is commemorated by a monument (there was formerly another in St Pancras Old Church, Middx); his will was proved 10 April 1630 and an inquisition post mortem was held later that year. His widow married 2nd, 23 May 1633 at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), Thomas Willis (c.1576-1656) of Fen Ditton (Cambs), Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, and had further issue; she was living in 1643.

Barker, Thomas (d. 1643). Second son of Thomas Barker (c.1569-1630) and his wife Mary Saunders. Educated at Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1634/5) and Middle Temple (admitted 1636). A Royalist; said to have been killed at the Battle of Lansdown, 5 July 1643. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited the Grove House estate from his father in 1630.
He died on or about 5 July 1643; his will was proved 3 October 1643 in the Royalist prerogative court of Canterbury at Oxford.

Barker, Henry (k/a Harry) (c.1624-95). Third son of Thomas Barker (c.1569-1630) and his wife Mary Saunders. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1641) and Middle Temple (admitted 1644; called of grace, 1656; associate bencher, 1663). Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, 1660-92. He married Anne, daughter of Chaloner Chute of Sutton Court, Chiswick and the Middle Temple, and had issue:
(1) Scorey Barker (c.1652-1713) (q.v.);
He inherited the Grove House estate from his brother in 1643 and acquired further land in 1655; he inherited Buckhurst, Wokingham, from his brother William. He purchased the manor of Clapcot, Wallingford (Berks) in 1675.
He was buried at Chiswick, 1 August 1695. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barker, Scorey (c.1652-1713). Only recorded son of Henry Barker (d. 1695) and his wife Anne, daughter of Chaloner Chute of Sutton Court, Chiswick and the Middle Temple, born about 1652. Educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1662; called 1675; bencher, 1691; reader, 1693; treasurer, 1702-03) and Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1667 aged 15). Freeman of Wallingford, 1679; MP for Wallingford, 1679-81 and for Middlesex, 1705-10, when he was classed as a Whig. He married, 1679 (licence 19 May), Anne, daughter of Sir John Robinson, 1st bt., of London and Nuneham Courtenay (Oxon), and had issue:
(1) Henry Barker (1680-1745) (q.v.);
(2) William Barker (b. 1681), baptised at Chiswick, 2 December 1681; living in 1713;
(3) Elizabeth Barker (b. 1683), born 25 February and baptised at Chiswick, 9 March 1683; living in 1686;
(4) Ann Barker (b. 1684), born 24 July and baptised at Chiswick, 1 August 1684; living in 1686;
(5) Mary Barker (1685-c.1720?), born 25 August and baptised at Chiswick, 4 September 1685; living in 1695; married, 17 December 1709 at St Mary-le-Bow, London, James Glyde of Exeter (Devon) and had issue one son and three daughters; living in 1715;
(6) Thomas Barker (b. 1687), born 11 July and baptised at Chiswick, 21 July 1687; educated at Middle Temple (admitted 1697; called 1712; bencher 1733; reader 1735; treasurer, 1746); barrister-at-law; married, 1732 at Kings Langley (Herts), Mary, daughter of Henry Smith of Inner Temple, London; died after 1746;
(7) Sarah Barker (b. 1689), born 30 August and baptised at Chiswick, 27 September 1689; living in 1713;
(8) John Barker (1690-1755), born 21 August and baptised at Chiswick, 7 September 1690; buried at Chiswick, 13 October 1755;
(9) Jane Barker (b. 1691), born 20 November and baptised at Chiswick, 12 December 1691; living in 1713;
(10) Edward Barker (b. 1692), born 9 December and baptised at Chiswick, 21 December 1692; living in 1695;
(11) George Barker (1694-1750), born 15 May and baptised at Chiswick, 25 May 1694; buried at Chiswick, 1750, where he is commemorated by a monument;
(12) Catherine Barker (b. 1695), born 26 September and baptised at Chiswick, 23 October 1695; living in 1713;
(13) Benjamin Barker (b. 1698), born 9 December and baptised at Chiswick, 13 December 1698; living in 1713;
(14) Henrietta Barker (b. 1700), born 12 May and baptised at Chiswick, 15 May 1700; living in 1713;
(15) Charles Barker (b. 1702), born 31 July and baptised at Chiswick, 9 August 1702; living in 1713;
(16) James Barker (b. & d. 1704); died in infancy and was buried at Chiswick, 17 June 1704.
He inherited Grove House, Chiswick; Buckhurst, Wokingham and the manor of Clapcot, Wallingford from his father in 1695, and probably remodelled Grove House soon afterwards. He also further enlarged the estate there.
He was buried at Chiswick, 22 August 1713; his will was proved 11 September 1713. His wife was buried at Chiswick, 3 February 1710/11.

Barker, Henry (1680-1745). Eldest son of Scorey Barker (c.1652-1713) and his wife Anne, daughter of Sir John Robinson, 1st bt., of London and Nuneham Courtenay (Oxon), born at Essex Court, London and baptised at St Clement Danes, London, 19 December 1680. Educated privately and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (matriculated 1697) and Middle Temple (admitted 1697). He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Middlesex on four occasions and was led into debt by his expenditure on these campaigns. He married 1st, 14 April 1705 at Lincoln's Inn Chapel, London, Elizabeth Lister (d. 1720), widow, of Bromley (Kent); 2nd, 17 April 1721 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), Barbara Minell (d. 1739), and 3rd, 20 December 1739 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Mary (1719-77), eldest daughter of Thomas Coventry esq., and had issue:
(1.1) Elizabeth Barker (b. c.1706; fl. 1745), eldest daughter, born c.1706; living, unmarried, in 1745;
(1.2) Anne Barker (1707-85), born 25 March and baptised at St Ann, Soho (Middx), 13 April 1707; married, 6 April 1738 at Kew (Surrey), Rev. Dr. Thomas Morell FSA FRS (1703-84), then curate of Kew and later non-resident rector of Buckland (Herts), librettist, classical scholar and printer, but had no issue; lived at Kew and later Turnham Green (Middx); buried at Chiswick, 19 November 1785;
(1.3) Sophia Barker; (b. c.1709; fl. 1745);
(1.4) Mary Barker (b. 1710), born 28 August and baptised at St Ann, Soho, 17 September 1710; died before 1722;
(1.5) Henry Barker (1711-75), born 7 December and baptised at St Ann, Soho, 26 December 1711; he inherited the manor of Clapcot, Wallingford from his father in 1745 and lived at Wallingford (Berks); married, 1752 (licence 17 July), Catherine (d. 1777), daughter of Sir John Statham of Tideswell (Derbys) and widow of Benjamin Bagshawe of Ridge (Derbys) and Lt-Gen. Richard Phillips, but had no issue; buried at Chiswick, 5 June 1775; will proved 30 June 1775;
(1.6) Cordelia (k/a Delia) Barker (1713-83), born 14 April and baptised at St Ann, Soho (Middx), 25 April 1713; died unmarried; will proved 25 February 1783;
(1.7) Charlotte Barker (1715-97), born 7 April and baptised at St Ann, Soho, 23 April 1715; died unmarried and was buried at Chiswick, 29 December 1797; will proved 2 January 1798;
(1.8) John Barker (b. 1716), born 2 May and baptised at St Ann, Soho, 20 May 1716; not mentioned in his father's will of 1745 and was probably dead by then;
(1.9) Harriet Barker (1717-91), born 2 May and baptised at St Ann, Soho, 22 May 1717; died unmarried, 1791; will proved 5 May 1791;
(1.10) William Barker (b. 1718; fl. 1745), born 22 October and baptised at St Ann, Soho, 11 November 1718; living in 1745;
(1.11) Frances Barker (d. 1719), buried at Chiswick, 25 June 1719;
(2.1) Mary Barker (b. 1722), born 6 June and baptised at Chiswick, 27 June 1722; married by 1745;
(2.2) Barbara Barker (b. & d. 1723), born 21 July and baptised at Chiswick, 20 August 1723; died in infancy and was buried at Chiswick, 14 October 1723;
(3.1) A daughter (b. 1740), born 13 September 1740; probably died in infancy.
He inherited Grove House, Chiswick; Buckhurst, Wokingham and the manor of Clapcot, Wallingford from his father in in 1713. He sold Buckhurst in 1727. Clapcot passed to his eldest son, but Grove House was left to trustees who broke up the property by sales in 1750, 1761 and 1762.
He died in 1745 and was buried at Chiswick; his will was proved 17 February 1745/6. His first wife was buried at Chiswick, 13 June 1720. His second wife was buried at Chiswick, 16 February 1738/9. His widow married 2nd, 18 October 1755 at Chiswick, as his second wife, Rev. Dr. Philip Bearcroft DD (1695-1761), Master of the Charterhouse; she was buried at Chiswick, 14 October 1777 and her will was proved 3 November 1777.

Sources

E. Ashmole, The antiquities of Berkshire, 1723; W.H. Rylands, The four visitations of Berkshire, 1532-1666, Harleian Soc., 1907; L. Weaver, Houses and Gardens by E.L. Lutyens, 1913, pp. 53-61; VCH Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923, pp. 210-36, 247-60; P.S. Spokes, 'Coats of arms in Berkshire churches: the hundred of Sonning', Trans. Berkshire Archaeological Society, vol. 40, 1936, pp. 71-78; VCH Oxfordshire, vol. 8, 1964, pp. 198-210; VCH Middlesex, vol. 7, 1982, pp. 74-78; C. Aslet, The last country houses, 1982, p. 315; C. Aslet, ‘All white is not all right’, Country Life, 5 November 1987, p. 83; J. Harris, Moving Rooms, 2007, pp. 191, 245; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2nd edn., 2010, pp. 338, 521; P. & C. Hammond, Life in an English country house, 2012;

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive.

Coat of arms

Party per chevron engrailed or and sable, a lion rampant counterchanged

Can you help?

• Does anyone know of any views of either the Tudor or Georgian Deanery or Parsonage House at Sonning apart from the view on an estate map reproduced above? The Georgian house appears to be unrecorded.
• Can anyone supply information about the later 20th century ownership of Deanery Garden or Hurst Lodge?
• Is anyone in a position to substantiate or refute the rumour that Grove House was re-erected in America after its demolition in 1929?
• It has not been possible with the resources available to me at present to provide full genealogical details for many of the younger sons and daughters of the people who appear in this account, and I hope to improve the account in future as new information comes to hand. In the meantime, if anyone can provide further details I should be most grateful if they would get in touch.
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 16 August 2019 and was updated 19 August, 2 September and 22 September 2019, 10 January and 2 August 2024. I am grateful to David Ford and Matthew Jones for helpful comments and corrections.