Early life

Barham was a native of Wadhurst

Wadhurst

Wadhurst is a market town in East Sussex, England. It is the centre of the civil parish of Wadhurst, which also includes the hamlets of Cousley Wood and Tidebrook. Wadhurst is twinned with Aubers in France.-Situation:...

, Sussex. His family had been settled there for some generations, being a branch of the Barhams of Teston House, Teston, Kent, descended from Robert de Berham, upon whom the estates of his kinsman, Reginald Fitzurse

Reginald Fitzurse

Sir Reginald FitzUrse was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket in 1170.His name is derived from Fitz which is a contracted form of the Norman-French fils de, meaning "son of" and Urse from the Latin ursus, meaning a bear, probable nom de guerre of his ancestor...

, notorious as one of the murderers of Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

, devolved upon his flight into Ireland after the murder. Nicholas Barham was called to the bar at Gray's Inn

Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 in 1542, became an ‘ancient’ of that society 24 May 1552, Lent reader in 1558, and was made serjeant-at-law in 1567, having previously (1562–3) been returned to parliament as member

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Maidstone

Maidstone (UK Parliament constituency)

Maidstone was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returned two Members of Parliament from 1552 until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member...

, of which town he also appears to have been recorder.

Treason trials

William Dugdale

William Dugdale

Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.-Life:...

 does not place Barham in the list of queen's serjeants until 1573. He is, however, so designated in papers relating to the trial of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was an English nobleman.Norfolk was the son of the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. He was taught as a child by John Foxe, the Protestant martyrologist, who remained a lifelong recipient of Norfolk's patronage...

, for high treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

 in conspiring with Mary, Queen of Scots to depose Elizabeth

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

, in 1571–2. He was given the conduct of the prosecution. From a letter from Sir Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith (diplomat)

Sir Thomas Smith was an English scholar and diplomat.He was born at Saffron Walden in Essex. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1530, and in 1533 was appointed a public reader or professor. He lectured in the schools on natural philosophy, and on Greek in...

 to Lord Burghley it appears that the rack

Rack (torture)

The rack is a torture device consisting of a rectangular, usually wooden frame, slightly raised from the ground, with a roller at one, or both, ends, having at one end a fixed bar to which the legs were fastened, and at the other a movable bar to which the hands were tied...

 was employed on a witness Banister, one of the duke's agents. When the duke, after the confession of the witness had been read, remarked that ‘Banister was shrewdly cramped when he told that tale,’ Barham, who had been present at the examination, replied ‘No more than you were.’ The trial of the duke took place in Westminster Hall 16 January 1572.

In the following February Barham was engaged in prosecuting the duke's secretary, Robert Higford, at the Court of Queen's Bench, on the charge of adhering to and comforting the queen's enemies. Higford was found guilty and, like his master, condemned to death.

Death

In 1577 Barham was present at the Oxford assizes

Assizes

Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to::;in common law countries :::*assizes , an obsolete judicial inquest...

 during the prosecution of a malcontent bookbinder, Rowland Jencks, a Roman Catholic. Jencks had spoken baly of dignities and kept away from church; the university authorities had him arrested and sent to London to undergo examination, and he was returned to Oxford to stand trial. This took place 4 July, when he was sentenced to lose his ears. There was a sudden outbreak of gaol fever; on the account of Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

 is to be credited, besides Barham and Sir Robert Bell, baron of the exchequer, the high sheriff and his deputy, Sir William Babington, four justices of the peace, three gentlemen, and most of the jury died; and in the course of the next five weeks more than five hundred others.

Family

Barham was survived by his wife, Mary, daughter of John Holt, of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, and one son, Arthur. He was the owner of two estates, one of which, known as Bigons or Digons, he had acquired by grant from the crown in 1554, the former proprietor having been implicated in the insurrection of Sir Thomas Wyatt; the other, the manor of Chillington

Chillington

Chillington may refer to:* Chillington, Devon* Chillington, Somerset* Chillington Hall, Staffordshire* Chilton, Wisconsin, originally named Chillington after one of the English towns...

, he purchased about the same time. Both estates were sold by his son Arthur. The Sussex branch of the family was largely concerned in the business of ironfounding, of which the county was, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a centre, before it declined there.