BARRINGTON, Henry (1592-aft. 1659), of Brick House, Colchester, Essex.

Attempts to find a kinship connection between the Barringtons of Colchester and the Barringtons of Hatfield Broadoak have always proved fruitless.17Round and Acland, Reg. 15; Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 176n. Any such connection must have long predated the seventeenth century. This MP’s father, Henry Barrington senior, was a leading figure in the Colchester corporation who served as joint bailiff (the town’s equivalent of mayor) in 1617. The son followed in his father’s footsteps. When he joined the Colchester corporation in 1623, Henry junior did so as a member of the first council without having served the usual period on the second council.18Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb3, f. 30v. He was promoted to the ranks of alderman just four years later.19Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb3, f. 66. By 1629 he too served his turn as bailiff. Under the new charter of 1635, the offices of bailiff were replaced by that of mayor and by 1641 Barrington had held that office twice.20Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb3, ff. 176v-184, 216v-218v. (The second of those terms was a brief, stopgap appointment made necessary by the death in office of his predecessor.) Although he was not yet a member of any of the local commissions, he was from time to time employed to carry out minor administrative tasks on behalf of the government.21CSP Dom. Add. 1625-49, p. 431; 1640-1, p. 76. How far the royalist claim that he was a brewer was just a slur on his character is difficult to say.22Mercurius Rusticus no. 1 (20 May 1643), 1 (E.103.3). If he was a brewer, he must have been a very prosperous one. His house, Brick House, located in the fields to the south-east town, was substantial and it survives as part of Winsley’s almshouses, a charitable foundation established by a subsequent owner of the property.23RCHME Essex, iii. 71; VCH Essex, ix. 105, 411. In 1637, during his first term as mayor, he supplied oysters to the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, although it is not clear whether he was doing so in an official or a private capacity.24The Household Accts. of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1635-1642, ed. L. James (Church of Eng. Rec. Soc. xxiv), 71.

An early indication of the role Barrington would play during the civil war was his involvement in the events preceding the attack in August 1642 on his neighbour Sir John Lucas’s house, St John’s Abbey. There is some evidence that relations between the pair had long been strained.25J. Walter, Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution (Cambridge, 1999), 95. On 21 August Barrington and the captain of the local trained band, John Langley, reacted to rumours that Sir John planned to transport horses and arms to the king by riding to Coggeshall, Bocking, Braintree and Halstead to warn them residents to set up road blocks.26Mercurius Rusticus (20 May 1643), 1. This action must have heightened fears within Colchester and can only have contributed to the alarm which created a riot on the night of 22 August.

Barrington’s enthusiasm for swift action against suspected enemies of Parliament found several outlets during the 1640s. Initially, his appointments were confined to Colchester. An entry in the parliamentary diary of Laurence Whitaker on 27 July 1643 suggests he may even have served as the town’s governor. When some of the locals petitioned the Commons proposing that their MP, Harbottle Grimston*, be appointed to that position, Whitaker recorded a rival petition from the mayor and some of the aldermen arguing that ‘Capt. Barrington, one of their aldermen’, who had previously been appointed by the lord lieutenant, the 2nd earl of Warwick (Sir Robert Rich†), should instead be continued.27Add. 31116, p. 131. The Commons simply deferred the matter.28CJ iii. 184a. It was probably as governor that Barrington raised a troop of 24 horses.29SP28/227: list of horse raised by Barrington, 4 Aug. 1643; Essex cttee. to Edward Birkhead, 7 Aug.; SP28/153: acct. of E. Birkhead, 1643-4, pp. 33, 35; SP28/129/4, ff. 4, 6. Even his appointment by Parliament that October as one of the Essex deputy lieutenants was probably intended primarily to assist recruitment within the town.30CJ iii. 273b.

This task of transforming the undoubted support which existed for Parliament within the town into real resources was not easy and Barrington seems to have shared the view that some of the demands placed on townspeople were unreasonable. In September 1644 he was part of the three-man delegation which went to London to petition Parliament for a reduction in the town’s assessment rating.31Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb3, f. 245v. His membership of the local sequestrations committee helped broaden his involvement. Parliament itself appointed him to handle the confiscations of the estates of such prominent delinquents such as 2nd Baron Rivers (John Savage†), Sir Henry Audley and Sir Thomas Lucas.32A. and O.; CJ iii. 260a, 324a; CSP Dom. 1644, p. 106. His role in the appropriation of timber from certain local estates for the use of the navy was an extension of this work.33CJ iii. 430b; A. and O. It was an indication of his growing importance that in 1645 he began to be named as an assessment commissioner for the whole county, rather than just for Colchester.34A. and O.; SP28/227: Essex cttee. certificate, 1 Apr. 1646.

The greatest crisis faced by Colchester during the civil war came in the summer of 1648 when the anti-parliamentarian forces under the 1st earl of Norwich (Sir George Goring†) occupied the town, causing Lord Fairfax (Sir Thomas Fairfax*) to lay siege to them for 11 weeks. Whether Barrington was unfortunate enough to be trapped within the town during the siege is unclear. His house stood outside the walls and so lay in an exposed position between the occupying forces and the besiegers – the famous engraving of the siege shows it in flames.35A Diary of the Siege of Colchester (1648, 666.f.13.6). The surviving building contains a fireplace with his initials and the date ‘1649’ which presumably formed part of the renovations undertaken to repair the damage.36RCHME Essex, iii. 71; VCH Essex, ix. 105. Setting aside these personal losses, Barrington’s position within the town was only strengthened by the siege’s successful outcome. The corporation was immediately purged of those who had sided with the earl of Norwich’s forces. This left men like Barrington, who had never wavered in their support for Parliament, in control of the town’s government.37Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 19-20, 22; J.H. Round, ‘Colchester during the Commonwealth’, EHR xv. 645-7. The following October Barrington was elected once more as mayor.38Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 21. One major concern for the corporation over the next few years would be the financial burdens imposed on the town. A £12,000 fine was resented, and it was argued that inhabitants could not be expected to pay their previous assessment rating as well. Barrington was among those who unsuccessfully lobbied the Rump for a reduction in these payments.39Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 50v, 53v, 74. In 1649 he also oversaw the repairs made on behalf of the council of state to the defences on Mersea Island in the Blackwater estuary to the south of Colchester.40CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 589; 1650, pp. 185, 579. By 1651 at the latest he was serving as a justice of the peace and, although he was an infrequent attender at quarter sessions, his colleagues on the bench often referred matters to him for adjudication.41Essex QSOBk. ed. Allen, 1-112.

Under normal circumstances Barrington would probably not have aspired to a seat in Parliament but in the unusual context of 1653 he was selected as one of the five Essex representatives, probably largely due to his standing with the council of state. As an MP he seems not to have exerted himself. The only committees to which he was nominated were those on the excise (1 Aug. 1653) (presumably a reflection of his brewing interests), on poor relief (2 Aug.) and on the petition from the inhabitants of Hambleton, Rutland (1 Oct.).42CJ vii. 293b, 294b, 328a. He was also among those MPs who were said to be opposed to the maintenance of a preaching ministry.43Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 410.

At the 1654 elections Barrington helped arrange the election of John Maidstone* for the junior Colchester seat.44Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 113v. Barrington may have regarded this as suitable repayment for the favour Maidstone had done him in getting his son, Abraham Barrington, a job as auditor to the household of the lord protector.45Round, ‘Colchester’, 648. By November 1654 Barrington’s enemies within the corporation were ready to strike. The new mayor, Thomas Reynolds, called together the free burgesses and persuaded them to dismiss Barrington, his son Abraham, and the recorder, Arthur Barnardiston, from their places.46Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 124-128v. A lengthy legal struggle to get them reinstated ensued.47Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 137; CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 202-3; Round, ‘Colchester’, 649-53. Barrington had certainly resumed his place as an alderman by 10 August 1655, at which point related aspects of the dispute were still being considered by the council of state.48Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 137v. Later that year the council ordered new elections for the major civic offices to ensure that Barrington’s allies and the other supporters of the protectorate were entrenched in power.49TSP iv. 330. The grant of a new charter in September 1656 remodelled the corporation to leave him in secure control.50Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 145v-146.

Barrington was now very much the dominant figure in Colchester and almost certainly involved in all the key decisions taken by the corporation. In 1657 he was among those who persuaded the Presbyterian preacher and fellow of Gonville and Caius, Owen Stockton, to accept the position of town lecturer.51Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 158, 165. In both 1657 and 1658 his was one of the two names proposed by the common councilmen for appointment as mayor and in September 1658 his colleagues among the aldermen selected him in preference to the other nominee, John Furlie.52Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 164, 179 His fourth stint as mayor meant that he presided over the new parliamentary election in January 1659. The return of his son, who was now clerk of the Greencloth, may indicate that Barrington would have sought the seat for himself had he not been mayor.53Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 186v-187v. However, this election was to be Barrington’s undoing. The free burgesses successfully challenged the result and further doubts about the legality of the 1656 charter were raised when they petitioned the reconvened Rump the following May. Barrington had to appear before the committee considering this case to give evidence on behalf of the existing corporation.54Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, ff. 190v, 193v. On 18 July 1659 the Rump ruled that Barrington should step down as mayor to allow John Radhams to hold that office.55CJ vii. 722b; Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 194v. The old charter was then reinstated, reversing the effects of the 1656 purge, although this still left Barrington as the senior alderman.56Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 195. Now back in power, the victims of the 1656 purge took their revenge. A meeting of the free burgesses was convened on 19 January 1660 to purge selected members of the corporation on the pretext that they were neglecting their duties. Barrington was the principal target. His fate was indicated only by the deletion of his name from the attendance list in the minutes. Abraham Barrington was also dismissed.57Essex RO, D/B 5/Gb4, f. 208v.

At this point Barrington simply disappears from the historical record. As he was now in his late sixties, it seems unlikely that he moved elsewhere, but it is impossible to be sure. No record of his death is known and no will survives. A grandson, Henry, the only son of his eldest son, Henry, who had died in 1643, conformed to the Church of England after the Restoration, becoming a fellow of Sidney Sussex, Cambridge, and vicar of St Sepulchre’s, London.58Round and Acland, Reg. 61; Al. Cant.