Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston (1588 – 25 July 1653) of Kedington, alias Ketton, Suffolk, was an English (East Anglian) landowner, magistrate and senior representative of a long-established knightly family, one of the wealthiest in Suffolk, who sat in the House of Commons for Sudbury twice and for the Shire three times between 1625 and 1648.J.P. Ferris, 'Barnardiston, Sir Nathaniel (c.1588-1653), of Kedington, Suff.', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629 (from Cambridge University Press, 2010), History of Parliament Online. Of Parliamentarian sympathies, he was known for his Christian piety both personally and in managing his household and the parishes under his patronage.
John Burke remarked that he was "esteemed the greatest ornament of his family", and cited Samuel Fairclough, who called him "one of the most eminent patriots of his time, and the twenty-third knight of his family".'Barnardiston of Ketton', in J. Burke and J.B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England (Scott, Webster and Geary, London 1836), pp. 39-41 (Google). (Misprints "Peter" for "Stephen" Soame.)R. Almack, 'Kedington alias Ketton and the Barnardiston family', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, IV Part 4 (1870), pp. 123-82 (Society's pdf). J.P. Ferris observed, "As a strong parliamentarian and a Presbyterian elder he was the dominant figure in Civil War Suffolk".
Barnardiston family of Ketton
The Barnardiston family took its name from the village of Barnardiston in the south-west corner of Suffolk, nearby to Kedington, and claimed a very remote establishment there, possibly from the time of the Norman Conquest. Kedington was formerly held by the de Novo Mercato or Newmarch family, with whom the Barnardistons intermarried during the 13th and 14th centuries.The descent of the manor of Kedington is described in W.A. Copinger, Manors of Suffolk, V (Manchester 1909), pp. 255-61 (Internet Archive). By 1327 the manor of Great Coates, North Lincolnshire, was held by John de Barnardiston, and also remained an important seat of the family.
In 1553, during the reign of Edward VI, Thomas Barnardiston the grandfather of Nathaniel became a ward of the King's tutor Sir John Cheke, who sent him to study with John Calvin in Geneva. "If the Grandfather failed to live according to that education in some part of his life, yet his Grandson endeavoured to live it for him." When Cheke died in 1557 the wardship was purchased by his widow Lady Cheke, and lawsuits ensued between her second husband (Henry Mac Williams) and Thomas Barnardiston over fishing rights at Kedington, which had formerly belonged to the College of Stoke-by-Clare, and were granted to John Cheke by King Edward VI.Almack, 'Kedington alias Ketton', p. 134.
Early life Nathaniel was the eldest surviving son of Sir Thomas Barnardiston of Witham, Essex (son of the Thomas above), and his wife Mary Knightley, daughter of Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley, Northamptonshire by his first marriage to Mary Fermor. He had younger brothers Arthur and Thomas, and a sister Elizabeth, who reached adulthood. Nathaniel's mother died in March 1594/95, whereupon his father remarried to Katherine Barnardiston (daughter of Thomas Banks of London, Serjeant-at-Law), who had formerly been the wife of Bartholomew Soame. Nathaniel underwent a profound religious awakening while he was at school. His admission to the Inner Temple is recorded in 1606,Inner Temple Admissions Database, (Inner Temple archives). though he was there in November 1605 as he recalled seeing a group of men walking in the Temple garden, whispering together and looking and acting concerned, whom he afterwards recognized to have been the Gunpowder Plot conspirators.
His father died in 1610 during his own father's lifetime, and was buried at Ketton, where he has a fine knightly effigy on an elaborate tomb. This monument was requisitioned, and a sum of £100 allocated for the purpose, in the will of Dame Katherine of 1633.See image by "jmc4 - Church Explorer" on flickr. He left his term of years in the capital messuage at Witham to his widow, and his possession of the parsonage there to her and to his sons while its term endured.Will of Sir Thomas Barnardiston of Witham, Essex (P.C.C. 1610, Wingfield quire). Nathaniel therefore did not succeed to the older family estates until the death of his grandfather, Sir Thomas Barnardiston of Clare, Suffolk, in 1619.Will of Sir Thomas Barnardiston of Clare (P.C.C. 1620, Soame quire). His stepmother, his father's sole executrix, remarried, and lived until March 1632/33. A baronetcy which was to have been awarded to the elder Sir Thomas in 1611 was for some reason withheld. Nathaniel, who was attentive to him, persuaded him to allow him to present ministers to the livings in their gift, since he would be their patron in future and could appoint men of puritan or presbyterian leanings.
On 16 May 1613 at St Pancras, Soper Lane (City of London) he married Jane, daughter of Sir Stephen Soame (c. 1540-1619) of Little Thurlow, Suffolk (a very wealthy overseas cloth merchant who had been Lord Mayor of London in 1598).W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Registers of St. Mary le Bowe, Cheapside, All Hallows, Honey Lane, and of St. Pancras, Soper Lane, London, II: Marriages, Harleian Society - Registers Vol. XLV (London 1915), p. 447 (Internet Archive). Their eldest child was born before 1617. In that year, 1617, he received a commission for sewers (for Suffolk and Essex). He was knighted in December 1618.
Kedington Hall It is likely that Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston was responsible for rebuilding or remodelling Kedington Hall. The Jacobean residence, which was demolished in the late 18th century, was the subject of a drawing made as a copy of an older illustration, or possibly from memory, during the early 19th century. The drawing was contained in a manuscript history of the Barnardiston family drawn up by Mark Noble (1754-1827) and illustrated by Mrs Mills, wife of the Revd. Thomas Mills, rector of Stutton, Suffolk in 1821-1830. As the only known representation of the Hall, it shows a symmetrical frontage of two storeys, consisting of five bays with a central entrance doorway, and a projecting gabled wing at either end with canted windows (making seven bays in all). The two gables have a shaped, domed form, and two clusters of tall chimneys are visible possibly rising from structures at the rear. A pair of single-storey ranges, detached from the main building, framed the Hall's forecourt, and these had shaped gables matching those of the outer wings of the Hall. These structures, probably only a single room in width, appear to be integral with the design of the Hall and were entered by doorways facing into the courtyard.A reproduction of this drawing with commentary is given in "Kedington Hall, Suffolk", in N. Kingsley, '(395) Barnardiston of Kedington Hall, Brightwell Hall and The Ryes' (29 October 2019), Landed Families of Britain and Ireland, Landed families blogspot.
1620s He received a commission for the peace for Suffolk in 1622 which he held more or less continuously for the rest of his life. By 1623 he was also Deputy lieutenant for the county, and for the year of 1623-24 was Sheriff of Suffolk. In the latter role he so maintained his religious duties as to take his Sheriff's-men to a weekday Lecture each week. He was returned for Sudbury in the parliaments of 1625 and 1626. In 1625 he was appointed one of the commissioners for collection of a general loan enforced without parliamentary consent, but refused to take the required oath or to lend £20, objecting on grounds of conscience. Summoned before the privy council to explain himself in 1627, and for refusing to contribute to Ship money, coat or conduct money, or to lend £20, he was imprisoned for some time in the Gatehouse Prison in London and in a castle in Lincolnshire. Orders for his release, together with his cousin Richard Knightley, John Hampden and others, were given in March 1627/28.Nugent, Memorials of John Hampden, His Party and His Times, Fourth edition (Henry G. Bohn, London 1860), p. 369 (Internet Archive). He was then returned to parliament in 1628 to represent Suffolk.
Sir Nathaniel took great care to inculcate religious principles into the education and conduct of his children and household, with particular attention paid also to the instruction and character of his domestic servants. During the 1620s he developed a devout respect for Samuel Fairclough (1594-1677), the minister who became pastor to his parish and household. Fairclough, who studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, after graduating in 1615 became resident at Clare, where he continued his studies with the inspirational Richard Blackerby, and where Barnardiston often heard him and admired his teaching. Abraham Gibson, of St John's College, soon after ordination in 1611 had become curate at Witham, and in 1618 was (in the name of Sir Thomas Barnardiston) presented Rector of Kedington, Sir Nathaniel's largest and most proximate benefice.J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press 1922), p. 210 (Internet Archive).Church of England Clergy database, CCEd Appointment evidence record ID 205969 and CCEd Appointment evidence record ID 163633.
Fairclough, meanwhile, lectured for the town of King's Lynn, but fell foul of local interests there, and, returning to Clare, married Richard Blackerby's eldest daughter. Sir Nathaniel was determined to recruit him, and in 1623 Fairclough accepted the small rectorate of Barnardiston parish, his patron promising him Kedington when it should become vacant. Sir Nathaniel had a family pew specially built at Barnardiston church so that they could all go to hear Fairclough as well as Gibson. Fairclough was, however, summoned before a High Commission for irregularities of teaching, from which he was not discharged for two years. Dr Gibson, who overmore became a royal chaplain and preacher in the Temple Church, died in 1629: Fairclough was rewarded for his not having reminded his patron of his promise, and succeeded as Rector of Kedington until 1662.J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press 1922), p. 116 (Internet Archive). As at Barnardiston, his institution at Kedington in 1629 took place without his having to take the oath of canonical obedience, or to subscribe to Whitgift's Three Articles.
1630s In 1629 King Charles I began to rule without parliament for eleven years. John Winthrop, aboard the Arbella at Yarmouth, wrote to his son at Groton in April 1630, referring to Sir Nathaniel's wish to put money into their joint stock (the Massachusetts Bay Company). "Remember my love and respect to him, and if he will put in £50, take it as part of the £200 which I have put in already, except you have money enough to supply more," he wrote.R.C. Winthrop (ed.), The Life and Letters of John Winthrop, 2nd Edition (Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1869), p. 392-93 (Google).