BARNE, William (c.1558-1619), of Tower Place, Woolwich, Kent.

Barne owned property at Woolwich, Plumstead and Bexley. In the last year of his life he obtained by charter, together with Hugh Lydiard, the perpetual right to hold a market in Woolwich. The marriage of his daughter Anne with William Lovelace created a useful alliance with that Kent family. Barne’s second son Robert lived in Grimsby, and it was presumably through this connexion that William Barne was returned for the borough.

Barne is said to have been some kind of crown official. He was on visiting terms with John Chamberlain and was a friend of Sir Dudley Carleton, and sometimes acted as intermediary between these two inveterate letter writers. On one occasion he passed on a book which Carleton had sent from Europe. Other acquaintances included Henry Savile II. Barne died 9 May 1619. His son Robert had recently died in France.1Vis. London (Harl. Soc. i), 25; Lincs. Peds.(Harl. Soc. 1), 102; C142/401/201; Arch. Cant. x. 208-9; Woolwich Recs. ed. Vincent, i. 50, 299; APC, 1617-19, p. 109; CSP Dom.1611-18, p. 497; Chamberlain Letters ed. McClure, i. 439, 457; ii. 238.