BARKER, Scorey (c.1652-1713), of Chiswick, Mdx.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1679
Oct. 1679

Family and Education

b. c.1652, 1st s. of Henry Barker of Grove House, Chiswick by Anne, da. of Chaloner Chute of Sutton Court, Chiswick. educ. M. Temple, entered 1662, called 1675; Oriel, Oxf. matric. 17 May 1667, aged 15. m. lic. 19 May 1679, Anne, da. of (Sir) John Robinson I, 1st Bt., of Milk Street, London and Nuneham Courtney, Oxon., 6s. 3da. suc. fa. 1695.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Wallingford 1679; commr. for assessment, Berks. and Mdx. 1679-80, Mdx. 1689-90; bencher, M. Temple 1691, reader 1693, treas. 1702-3.2

Biography

Barker came from a cadet branch of the Berkshire family which had taken to the law and resided in Middlesex since his grandfather’s time. His father is said to have fought in the King’s army at Lansdowne, and became clerk of the crown in Chancery at the Restoration. Barker, who acquired his Christian name from his mother’s family, was returned to the Exclusion Parliaments for Wallingford, and marked ‘honest’ on Shaftesbury’s list. He is seldom distinguished in the Journals from his cousin William Barker, but he was probably moderately active in the first Exclusion Parliament, in which he may have sat on six committees, including that to investigate a complaint against his future father-in-law. He voted for exclusion. He was re-elected after a contest with the court supporter John Stone, and was probably an active Member of the second Exclusion Parliament, serving on 12 committees, among which were those to inquire into abhorring and to examine the disbandment accounts. He was probably again active in the Oxford Parliament, in which he may have served on the committees to manage the impeachment of Fitzharris and to draw up the third exclusion bill, and on two others of lesser importance. In April 1688 his father was suspended from office in favour of a Roman Catholic. After succeeding to the Chiswick estate Barker sat in two of Queen Anne’s Parliaments as a Whig. He was buried at Chiswick on 22 Aug. 1713. His son stood unsuccessfully for Middlesex as a Whig in four elections.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. W. Draper, Chiswick, 69; Mar. Lic. (Harl. Soc. xxiv), 146; PCC 213 Irby.
  • 2. Berks. RO, Wallingford statute bk. 1648-1766, f. 108.
  • 3. Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvii), 64; Draper, 143; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 944-5; PCC 213 Irby; VCH Berks. iii. 230, Luttrell, i. 436; CJ, ix. 644; Mdx. and Herts. N. and Q. iii. 159.