Family and Education

b. c.1485, 2nd s. of Sir Thomas Barnardiston of Kedington, Suff. and Great Coates, Lincs. by Elizabeth, da. of George Newport of Brent Pelham, Herts. educ. L. Inn, adm. 20 Feb. 1511. m. (1) by 1516, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Thomas Burley of Lynn, Norf., at least 1s.; (2) Anne or Catherine, da. of Richard Godfrey of Northill, wid. of one Hatcliffe.2

Offices Held

J.p. Beds. 1534, 1536; commr. tenths of spiritualities 1535.3

Biography

George Barnardiston was probably under age when his father died in 1503 and nearly eight years passed before his admission to Lincoln’s Inn. He was still in his first year there when he was returned as senior Member for Grimsby. His election with Robert Vicars may have marked a reaction by the town against such interference as had reversed its previous one: the family property at Great Coates lay close to the town and Barnardiston’s elder brother Thomas was to be made mayor in 1515. Yet he was to be passed over at the next election, despite the King’s call for the re-election of the previous Members and the continued residence at Lincoln’s Inn which presumably reduced his wages bill.4

In July 1521 Barnardiston acquired Orchard Grange, or Warden rectory, near Northill, Bedfordshire, on a 36-year lease from Warden abbey; this became his home and it was in Bedfordshire that he made a start in local administration. He seems to have derived no advantage from his sister Christina’s marriage to the future chancellor Thomas Audley I, perhaps because she died early and childless. His own first marriage linked him with Lynn in Norfolk and his second established his connexion with Bedfordshire; his son John also found a wife at Lynn, one of the daughters of Thomas Miller, and it may have been his daughter who married Henry, son of William Skipwith. Barnardiston’s end is obscure, but he appears on no commissions after 1536 and he was presumably dead by 1545 when his son surrendered the lease of Orchard Grange to the augmentations in exchange for another.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. M. Hofmann

Notes

• 1. Great Grimsby AO, oldest ct. bk. f. 223.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from career and elder brother’s age in 1503, CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 492. Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. l), 91-92; (ibid. li), 472; Vis. Beds. (Harl. Soc. xix), 4, 16, 79.
• 3. E371/300, m.41; LP Hen. VIII, viii, ix.
• 4. HMC 14th Rep. VIII, 289.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, viii, xi, xx.