BARRINGTON, Gobert (c.1623-95), of Tofts, Little Baddow, Essex.

Gobert Barrington was almost certainly born in 1623, the year of his mother’s death. Indeed it seems likely that Frances, Sir Thomas Barrington’s first wife, died in childbirth and that the child was given her maiden name in her memory.18Galpin, ‘Household expenses’, 205. After a serious bout of ill health in 1632, the following year he was admitted with his eldest brother, John*, to Trinity College, but probably he remained at home, at least for several years.19Barrington Lttrs. 242; Galpin, ‘Household expenses’, 210. By the early 1640s he was spending at least some of his time in London. In September 1643 he reported to his father on the latest military news from the capital.20Eg. 2647, f. 262.

The death of Sir Thomas Barrington in September 1644, leaving substantial debts, undoubtedly created some difficulties for the two surviving Barrington brothers. Under the articles of agreement which he and Sir John had concluded by 1645, Gobert was owed £3,000, either money he had lent Sir John or inheritance he had not yet claimed from him, and was thereby entitled to interest payments amounting to £180 a year.21Essex RO, D/DBa/A44/8; D/DBa/A43/11. He also had some lands at Great Bowden in Leicestershire, bequeathed to his elder brother Oliver, by their grandfather, John Gobert, which had passed to him on Oliver’s death in 1632.22Essex RO, D/DBa/F15. Before 1649, when their second son, Francis, was born, Gobert had married Lucy Wiseman, and they were living at Shenfield just outside Brentwood on an estate, Fitzwalter, which seems to have been provided by Sir John.23Shenfield par. reg. p. 32; Morant, Essex, ii. 22. A move to Tofts at Little Baddow in 1652 was probably forced on them by the need to raise more money for Sir Thomas’s creditors, as the lands at Shenfield were sold soon after.24Essex RO, D/DBa/T30. An agreement with Henry Pennyng, the vendor of the lands at Little Baddow, whereby the final payment on the purchase price was delayed, resulted in prolonged litigation between him and Barrington.25Essex RO, D/DRa/L9; D/DRa/L12. Among Barrington’s neighbours at Little Baddow were the Mildmays, including Henry Mildmay*, and he was able to add to his estates by purchasing land from them.26Essex RO, D/DPl/29. His arrival in the area may not have been welcomed by everyone – William Burrell of Great Baddow was indicted at the Chelmsford quarter sessions in early 1656 for having told Barrington, ‘I have kept on my hat on my head before better men than you, and I am as good a gentleman as you’.27Essex RO, Q/SR 367/19.

Barrington’s appointment as an assessment commissioner in April 1649 was probably his first public service.28A. and O. It probably arose from Parliament’s desire to emphasise the commission’s local legitimacy in the wake of the regicide. William Burrell’s comment notwithstanding, the Barrington name still carried great weight throughout Essex. Barrington proved to be one of the most energetic of all Essex justices of the peace during the 1650s.29Essex QSOB ed. Allen, 53-153. The family name, a reputation for active public service and his willingness to support the protectorate probably underpinned his selection as one of the 13 Essex MPs in the 1656 Parliament.

For Barrington, as for many of his colleagues, the most notable issue raised during the 1656 Parliament seems to have been the case of the radical Quaker, James Naylor. He was three times a teller in related divisions, each time apparently acting for the side least sympathetic to Naylor. On 23 December 1656 he was a teller for the minority which did not want the Commons to receive the London petition pressing for Naylor’s release. He performed a similar role during the vote on 28 February 1657 when he helped block the proposal that Naylor be moved to another room and provided with a fire, a candle and fresh air.30CJ vii. 467a, 474a, 497b. That he seems also to have supported the bills to maintain preaching ministers on the Isle of Wight (where his brother was a major landowner), as well as other measures to promote a preaching ministry, suggests that he was probably a Presbyterian suspicious of the more radical forms of religion being advocated by men like Naylor.31CJ vii. 475b, 488a, 581b.

Personal reasons underlay some other business in which he took an interest. The bill to raise portions for the Masham children concerned a leading Essex family, while his appointment to the committee for Irish affairs was obviously linked to his brother’s dispute with Edward Dendy* over their land allocations.32CJ vii. 445a, 472b. Those lands may explain why on 10 June 1657 he was a teller in the division which fixed the level of the monthly assessments to be demanded from Ireland.33CJ vii. 554a. His fifth and final outing as a teller was on 3 February 1657, when he was for those who supported putting the question that the House should resolve itself into a grand committee to discuss the use of the term ‘the Other House’. His views on the substantive motion are unknown.34CJ vii. 591b. In all he was named to 16 committees, probably indicating that he was playing a full part in the proceedings of the House.35CJ vii. 438a, 445a, 465a, 466b, 472a-b, 475b, 476b, 488a, 528a. In the interval between the two sessions, his stepmother, Judith, Lady Barrington, died. Thomas Goodwin dedicated her funeral sermon to Gobert and his wife.36T. Goodwin, A Fair Prospect (1658), sig. A2.

Initially at least, Barrington accepted the Restoration and was rewarded with a knighthood. However, acceptance soon turned to disaffection. Like his brother, Sir John, he was probably uncomfortable with the details of the post-1662 religious settlement. In 1670 they were both removed from the Essex commission of the peace.37C231/7, p. 365. By the 1680s Sir Gobert was clearly a whig, supporting whig candidates in Essex elections.38Bramston, Autobiog. 175; Eg. 2650, f. 144. His links with the Essex nonconformists raised government hopes that he might support James II’s proposed repeal of the penal laws. In the spring of 1688 he was restored to the commission of the peace and was discussed as a possible candidate for the election at Maldon.39Bramston, Autobiog. 304; Ducket, Penal Laws, i. 404, 406, 409, 410. But he probably welcomed James’s overthrow later that year.

By the time of Barrington’s death in 1695 both he and his eldest son, Thomas, were heavily in debt. Sir Gobert therefore ordered that his estates in Norfolk, at Barney close to Walsingham, be sold to pay off his own debts. He left strict instructions that his funeral in the parish church at Little Baddow must cost no more than £200.40PROB11/425/118. His younger son, Francis, a wealthy London merchant, had agreed to take over Thomas’s debts in return for the inheritance of their father’s estates, so Thomas was left only £50. On his death in 1708 Francis left the remaining lands to his elder brother, but specified that in the (probably likely) eventuality that Thomas died childless, the lands should pass to the cousin of his wife, John Shute†. This duly occurred when the Barrington line became extinct on the death of Thomas in 1711.41Morant, Essex, ii. 22. Shute changed his surname to Barrington by act of Parliament in 1716 and took the title Viscount Barrington of Ardglass when raised to the Irish peerage in 1720.