BARRINGTON, John (d. 1689), of Westminster and later of Ridgewell, Essex.

The Barringtons of Hatfield Broad Oak had long been one of the principal Essex gentry families. In the heralds’ visitation of 1612 they claimed a descent to the then head of the family, Sir Francis Barrington†, of 16 generations.13Vis. Essex, 22-3, 146-8, 343; Barrington Lttrs. 25-7. Identifying which of them was the MP for Dunwich in 1659 is difficult because several members of the family in this period were called John Barrington. What is certain is that the MP was a gentleman of the bedchamber to Oliver Cromwell*.14Henry Cromwell Corresp. 439. It then seems plausible that this was the younger son of Robert Barrington†.

Robert Barrington of Hatfield Bury and Lacheleys was the second son of Sir Francis Barrington† of Broad Oak; Sir Thomas Barrington* was his elder brother, Sir John Barrington* his nephew, Sir Gilbert Gerard* his brother-in-law, and Oliver Cromwell his first cousin. He married Dorothy Eden in 1620, but his second son, John, cannot have been born until after 1634, when the visitation mentioned only his elder brother, Thomas, and six sisters.15Vis. Essex, 343. John Barrington was admitted with his brother to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1652.16Al. Cant. After Cambridge, the brothers proceeded together to Gray’s Inn in 1654.17G. Inn Admiss. But it is more likely to have been an older Gray’s Inn student, John Barrington of Bentley, Suffolk, who became deputy recorder of Colchester and who was called to the bar in 1657.18G. Inn Admiss.; Lansd. 1109, f. 35v; PBG Inn, 421; PBG Inn, 1669-1800, 41.

Barrington’s appointment in August 1655 as a gentleman of the bedchamber to the lord protector reflected Cromwell’s policy of relying, where possible, on his own relatives to fill the places of trust in the protectoral household.19Clarke Pprs. iii. 47. The four ‘gentlemen’ probably acted as the protector’s body servants and Barrington’s relations with his master seem to have been very close. He was sent by Cromwell from Hampton Court in August 1658, during what the protector feared might be his final illness, on what proved a fruitless search through his papers at Whitehall for a sealed statement which Cromwell had made out in 1653 naming who was to succeed him as lord protector.20TSP vii. 364. Some of the usual advantages of court office applied to this position. He could introduce petitioners to Cromwell and, when his first cousin, Francis Barrington, wanted servants for his Jamaican plantation in 1657, John Barrington relayed news that Cromwell’s response had been favourable.21CSP Col. 1574-1660, p. 467; Eg. 2648, f. 302. In Cromwell’s funeral procession Barrington rode with the effigy, either as the gentleman of the robes or the gentleman usher.22SP18/183, ff. 190v, 193; Burton’s Diary, ii. 528. Although these were almost certainly no more than honorific positions created for that one occasion, that honour was considerable, for the duty of riding in the funeral car was traditionally reserved for the most familiar of servants. It is not clear whether Richard Cromwell* re-employed his father’s attendants on becoming lord protector, but in reporting the result from Dunwich in the 1659 elections to Henry Cromwell*, Gilbert Mabbott described Barrington as ‘one of his highness’s bedchamber’.23Henry Cromwell Corresp. 439.

Barrington probably owed his election as MP for Dunwich in the 1659 Parliament to the influence of the Brewster family. There is no reason to suppose that he had any more direct connection with the town or indeed with the Suffolk coast. Four days before the election he was admitted as a freeman by the town’s corporation, taking the required oaths. On 3 January 1659 the freemen consented to his nomination for the junior seat, behind Robert Brewster*, in an uncontested election.24Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE6/3/4, f. 74. Once elected, he was not named to any committees and probably never spoke in debate.

With the fall of the protectorate in the spring of 1659, Barrington turned an alternative means of advancement, a commission in the army. He was one of the captains appointed by the Rump in July 1659 to the cavalry regiment commanded by Nathaniel Rich*, the republican critic of the commonwealth who was now back in favour.25CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 387; CJ vii. 704a, 709b, 715b. But Barrington no longer held this position by the beginning of 1660, perhaps implying that he had opposed Rich’s decision in December 1659 to object to John Lambert’s* dismissal of the Rump.26Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 154, 156. After the restoration of the monarchy Barrington’s intimate association with Cromwell seems to have excluded him from any public office for almost 30 years.

In October 1661 Barrington’s mother bought Pannells Le Hill farm at Ridgewell, almost on the Essex-Suffolk border, where he and his family then settled.27Morant, Essex, ii. 342. By now he was married, his wife being a daughter of the late councillor of state, Sir Robert King*, and his second wife, Sophia, widow of Viscount Wimbledon (Sir Edward Cecil†). Judging by the birthdates of some of their children, the wedding had probably taken place since King’s death in 1657.28J. Lodge, The Peerage of Ireland (Dublin, 1754), iv. 155; PROB11/265/400; PROB11/397/506; PROB11/403/488. One son, Thomas, was baptised at Ridgewell on 5 December 1662 and in 1688 at least two of Barrington’s five surviving sons were not yet 21.29Ridgewell par. reg.; PROB11/397/506. By 1676 Barrington had inherited the lands at Ridgewell from his mother, for that February he sold up to Charles Ballett.30Morant, Essex, ii. 342.

What he did next is unknown. He may have been the Captain Barrington who quarrelled in 1683 with Sir Edward Turnor† (whose seat at Great Hallingbury was close to Hatfield Broad Oak).31CSP Dom. 1683, p. 187. The man who in 1688 opposed a repeal of the Test Acts was more probably a son of his cousin, Sir John Barrington.32Penal Laws and Test Act ed. G. Duckett (1882-3), i. 397. Only in 1689 does Barrington resurface with certainty. On 8 March that year a commission was issued to Lt.-col. John Barrington to serve as a captain in the regiment of (Sir) Henry Ingoldsby* to be sent to Ireland to repel the Jacobite invasion.33Dalton, Army Lists, iii. 78 and n. 116; Diary of Thomas Bellingham ed. A. Hewitson (Preston, 1908), 94. Barrington did not survive the Irish winter; that November he was one of many in the Williamite camp before Dundalk who were carried off by fever.34HMC Downshire, i. 320; Life of James the Second ed. J.S. Clarke (1816), ii. 382. A will, which he had prepared in June 1688 and which described him as `late of Ridgewell', was proved later that year. The codicil added in June 1689, by mentioning his goods in Ireland, confirms that he was indeed the army officer of that name. Most of his children received cash payments, while his remaining lands were placed in a trust (comprising the executors) to benefit his wife and his son, Robert.35PROB11/397/506.

Barrington’s widow spent part of her remaining years in prison and, on her release, found herself disowned by her daughter, Sophia Bayes. A distant relative, Philippa, widow of Charles, 3rd Baron Mohun, took her in and, at the time of her death in 1707, the pair were living in rented accommodation in Red Lion Street, Holborn, London. Mrs Barrington’s will revealed that the family rift had not healed; while Lady Mohun received her remaining possessions, her daughter was left the insulting sum of one shilling, ‘a legacy proportionable to or rather exceeding the duty she has paid to me’.36PROB11/500/363; PROB18/30/26; PROB24/47, ff. 461-463v; PROB11/504/320. The subsequent history of Barrington’s descendants is obscure.