BARKER, Anthony (c.1604-67), of Sonning, Berks. and the Middle Temple, London.

The Barker family traced their ancestry back to the village of Wokingham in Berkshire, but they had moved the short distance to Sonning in the mid-sixteenth century when one of them, William Barker, steward to the bishop of Salisbury, acquired the estate of Holme Park.14Ashmole, Antiquities, ii. 386; Vis. Berks. ii. 64; VCH Berks. iii. 213. In time some of the lands at Sonning passed to Anthony, the steward’s great-nephew and this MP’s father. Knighted in 1608, Sir Anthony sat as MP for Reading in 1621.15HP Commons 1604-1629.

Sir Anthony and his first wife had 11 children, of whom six were boys. For most of his childhood, Anthony junior, the future Long Parliament MP, was only the fifth son, although an elder and a younger brother died young.16Vis. Berks. ii. 64; Ashmole, Antiquities, ii. 388. When Sir Anthony died in 1630 he left his youngest surviving son only an annuity of £40.17PROB11/157/389. But he had given Anthony junior a good education. After graduating from Trinity College, Oxford, he proceeded to the Middle Temple, where he was bound to his elder brother, William, and their brother-in-law, Edmund Fowell*. Almost immediately, he took over the rooms there formerly occupied by William.18M. Temple Admiss. i. 117; MTR ii. 703, 706. In 1633, three years after their father’s death, he was called to the bar and probably then began practising as a barrister.19M. Temple Admiss. i. 117; Ingpen, M. Temple Bench Bk. 202.

In January 1639 Barker was appointed by the corporation of Wallingford as its recorder.20Berks. RO, W/AC1/1/1, f. 130. As the town was located only 15 miles upstream on the Thames from Sonning, he could count as a lawyer with some local connections. On 15 October 1640 he and Edmund Dunch* were returned to Parliament as MPs for the borough. However, the validity of the return was challenged and on 15 February 1641 the Commons agreed to order a new writ.21CJ ii. 85b; Procs. LP ii. 450. In the second election Thomas Howard* was chosen instead of Barker, whose parliamentary career thus ended almost as soon as it had begun.

Barker played no known part in the civil war. Presumably he continued to practise in the law courts in London. His eldest brother, William, served as a pro-parliamentarian local official back in Berkshire.22A. and O. Anthony continued as recorder of Wallingford until July 1648 when a dispute over the terms of appointment for the new town clerk led to his dismissal.23Berks. RO, W/AC1/1/1, f. 136. Since this came in the wake of a purge of the corporation to make way for strong parliamentarian supporters (including William Cooke*), perhaps Barker had more moderate views. Yet he was added to the Berkshire commission of the peace in the summer of 1649, suggesting either that he had kept his head down or that he was at some level sympathetic to the new republic.24C231/6, p. 159. Barker served as a justice of the peace throughout the 1650s and was one of the Berkshire assessment commissioners in 1657.25A. and O. In August 1655 one of the Barkers, possibly Anthony but possibly one of his brothers, wrote to Bulstrode Whitelocke*, who considered him a kinsman, to thank him for securing the appointment of the schoolmaster at Abingdon.26Whitelocke, Diary, 412. That, in the meantime, Barker had become a bencher of the Middle Temple confirms that he was still active as a lawyer.27MTR iii. 1069.

Barker appears to have accepted the Restoration and remained a magistrate and a tax commissioner, although his involvement in public service remained limited. By the time of his death, he had been reappointed as recorder at Wallingford (possibly succeeding Thomas Holt*).28Berks. RO, W/AC1/1/2, f. 37v; CSP Dom. 1665-6, p. 255. In May 1662 he was nominated autumn lecturer at the Middle Temple. Barker initially declined the honour (or burden), but, on being fined £100, he duly delivered them.29MTR iii. 1174, 1175, 1177. In late 1666 he was elected treasurer for the following year.30MTR iii. 1210, 1211. It thus fell to him to oversee rebuilding work when some of the Temple buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire, although he barely had time to embark on this before he died on 21 January 1667.31Berks. RO, W/AC1/1/2, f. 37v; W/AC1/1/1, f. 146; MTR iii. 1213, 1214, 1221; CSP Dom. 1665-6, p. 255. He left a son, also called Anthony. The male line of the main Sonning branch, descended from the MP’s eldest brother, died out in the following generation.32VCH Berks. iii. 213. Two more distant relatives, William Barker† and Scorey Barker†, sat as whigs for Berkshire and Wallingford respectively in the Exclusion Parliaments.33HP Commons 1604-1629.