Sir
George Barne
Lord Mayor of London
In office
1586–1587
Preceded byWolstan Dixie
Succeeded bySir George Bonde
Member of Parliament for London
In office
1588–1589
Sheriff of London
In office
1576–1577
Auditor of London
In office
1574–1574
Personal details
Born1532
Died1593
Occupationmerchant

Sir George Barne (c. 1532–1593) was a prominent merchant and public official from London during the reign of Elizabeth I, and the son of Sir George Barne (died 1558) and Alice Brooke.

Life

Barne, a haberdasher of London,[1] was an Alderman of the London ward Bridge between 1574 and 1576, Tower between 1576 and 1583, Langbourn between 1583 and 1587, and Bassishaw between 1587 and 1593.[2] Barne served as Auditor of London in 1574, Sheriff of London between 1576 and 1577, Lord Mayor of London between 1586 and 1587, and was knighted by Lord Chamberlain in 1587. He was a Master of the Haberdashers' Company between 1586 and 1587, represented London in the Parliament between 1588 and 1589, and was President of St. Thomas' Hospital between 1592 and 1593.[2] Barne was also the Governor of the Muscovy Company several times, and a founder of the Spanish Company, in 1577, and the Turkey Company.

In 1580, he helped finance a voyage to discover a Northeast Passage, as his father had done decades previously.[3] Barne supported the voyage of Edward Fenton in 1582 and John Davis's voyage in 1586, both of which sought to find the Northwest Passage.[4]

He was related to several families of the London oligarchy, had shares in the Company of Mineral and Battery Works, and was well connected, considered one of the most influential people of his times in London municipal affairs.[5] Sir Jerome Horsey wrote that Barne was his dear friend, and it is noted that Barne was a contemporary of Henry Hudson.[6]

John Stow dedicated his work "The Chronicles of England" to Barne.[4]

Upon his death, Barne left a will which revealed his financial success, holding land and estates in several countries.[7] He lived on Lombard Street, London and was buried at St Edmund, King and Martyr nearby.

Anti-Catholicism

He was noted for his excessive zeal against Catholics when he was the sheriff, resulting in a breach of diplomatic etiquette when he stormed a private residence hosting the Portuguese ambassador for mass. As a result, he was imprisoned in the Fleet for a few days.[8] It is noted that he was the brother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham, who was responsible for breaking up the Catholic plot to overthrow the Queen during the following decade.[7]

Marriage and issue

Barne married Anne Gerrard, daughter of Sir William Garrard, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1555.[9][10] They had nine children:

References

  1. ↑ J.J. Howard, 'Early Merchants's Marks', in G. Willis (ed.), Willis's Current Notes: A Series of Articles on Antiquities, Biography (&c.) Addressed during the year 1856 (Willis and Sotheran, London 1857), p. 84 (Google).
  2. 1 2 A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II,p. 40 (Internet Archive).
  3. ↑ R. Brenner, 'The dynamics of commercial development, 1550-1640: A Reinterpretation', in Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict and London's Overseas Traders, 1560-1663 (Verso, London and New York 2003), pp. 17, 20 (Google).
  4. 1 2 'Barnes, Sir George, the younger', in A. Brown, The Genesis of the United States: A Narrative of the Movement in England, 1605-1616 (&c.), 2 vols (Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, Boston and New York 1891), II, p. 825 (Google).
  5. ↑ N.R. Deardorff, 'English trade in the Baltic during the reign of Elizabeth', in E.P. Cheyney (ed.), Studies in the History of English Commerce in the Tudor Period (University of Pennsylvania/D. Appleton and Company, New York 1912), pp. 259-60 (Internet Archive).
  6. ↑ J.M. Read, A Historical Inquiry Concerning Henry Hudson, His Friends, Relatives and Early Life (Joel Munsell, Albany 1866), I, pp. 79-82 (Google).
  7. 1 2 H. Zins, Transl. by H.C. Stevens, England and the Baltic in the Elizabethan Era (Manchester University Press, Rowman and Littlefield, Totoma, N.J., 1972), p. 96 (Google).
  8. ↑ 'Barne of London and Woolwich', in J. Hall Pleasants, 'The Lovelace Family and its Connections', (Part), The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 29 (Richmond, 1921), p. 110-24, at p. 118 (Hathi Trust).
  9. ↑ 'Barne, of Sotterly and Dunwich', in J. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain (Henry Colburn, London 1836), I, p. 139 (Google).
  10. ↑ 'Barne', in J.J. Howard and G.J. Armytage (eds), The Visitation of London in the year 1568. Taken by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux Harleian Society Vol. I (1869), p. 25.
  11. ↑ 'Carrell', in W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the county of Surrey, Harleian Society XLIII (London 1899), pp. 88-89 (Internet Archive).
  12. ↑ J.E.M., 'Aungier, Francis (1558-1632), of Gray's Inn, London and East Clandon, Surr.; later of Longford and Dublin, Ireland', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament online.
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