BARKER, Sir Abel, 1st Bt. (c.1616-79), of Hambleton and Lyndon, Rutland.

Barker came of yeoman stock. His father bought the manor of Nether Hambleton in 1634, and Barker himself prospered as a large-scale sheep-farmer. Although he welcomed the Civil War without enthusiasm, he served on the county committee and was elected to the second Protectorate Parliament. But he was no friend to the regime and signed the loyal address at the Restoration. He was proposed for the order of the Royal Oak with an estate of £1,000 p.a. He stood unsuccessfully for Rutland against Edward Noel in 1661. In the following year he was able, out of his profits as farmer and landlord, to buy the manor of Lyndon where he built a large mansion. Three years later he was granted a baronetcy by Charles II, paying the usual fee. His second wife was the niece of Sir Geoffrey Palmer, the attorney-general, with whom he corresponded on political and business affairs. Barker was returned for the county at the second general election of 1679, probably in the country interest. But he died before the second Exclusion Parliament met. He was buried at Lyndon on 2 Sept. 1679, aged 63, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.2HMC 5th Rep. 396-7; VCH Rutland, i. 200-1; ii. 67, 73, 75.