Sir Francis Barrington | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Essex | |
| In office December 1620 – July 1628 | |
| Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Essex | |
| In office 1603–1626 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1560 Barrington Hall, Essex |
| Died | 3 July 1628 (aged 68) London |
| Resting place | St Mary the Virgin, Hatfield Broad Oak |
| Nationality | English |
| Spouse | Joan Cromwell (1579–his death) |
| Children | Thomas (c. 1585 – 1644), Robert (?–1642), Francis, John (?–1631), Elizabeth |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Landowner, politician and Puritan activist |
Sir Francis Barrington, 1st Baronet of Barrington Hall, Essex (c. 1560 – 3 July 1628) was a Puritan activist and politician, who was MP for Essex from 1601 to 1604, then 1620 to 1628.
One of the wealthiest members of the Essex gentry, Barrington was a strong advocate of reforming the Church of England, with family connections to many other Puritan activists. This allowed him to exercise significant influence within Parliament, where he opposed the religious and foreign policies of James and Charles I.
In 1626, he was imprisoned for refusing to help collect the Forced Loan, an attempt by Charles to levy taxes without Parliament's approval that prefigured later struggles over Ship Money in the 1630s. Barrington was released due to ill health in January 1628 but died on 3 July.
His opposition made him a popular hero within the Puritan community; forty years after his death in 1670, he was described as "one of the mirrors of our time".[1]