Nathaniel Barnardiston

[8] By 1327 the manor of Great Coates, North Lincolnshire, was held by John de Barnardiston, and also remained an important seat of the family.

[9] 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.

[15] Nathaniel therefore did not succeed to the older family estates until the death of his grandfather, Sir Thomas Barnardiston of Clare, Suffolk, in 1619.

[4] 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.

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.

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.

[4] 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.

[4] 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.

[23][24] 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.

[22] Dr Gibson, who overmore became a royal chaplain and preacher in the Temple Church, died in 1629:[23] Fairclough was rewarded for his not having reminded his patron of his promise,[22] and succeeded as Rector of Kedington until 1662.

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).

There was said to be a blessed conjunction in him: he had "an admirable faculty and easinesse to be intreated, with a great yeildingness of spirit, even to Inferiours, when any good might be done thereby, yet also a strong, resolute unmoveablenesse and stedfastness of mind in opposing all evil in whomsoever.

[4] His family was "a true nursery for the qualifying and accomplishing" of excellence among the Servants: "such, whose Obedience, joyned to their Governours care, produced so rare an effect, that they truly made his House a spiritual church and Temple, wherein were daily offered up the spiritual Sacrifices of Reading the Word; of Prayer, morning and evening, of singing of Psalms constantly after every meal, before any Servant did rise from the Table: also the chiefest of them did usually, after every Sermon they heard, call the rest into the Buttery (a place of most disorder in other Houses), and there repeat the Sermon unto the rest, before they were called to the repetition of it in their Masters presence.

On their returning from travels, he told them he was far happier to find the grace of regeneration in them, than to hear that they had enlarged their estates: and he urged all his children, if they should have differences, to submit themselves to the arbitration of their siblings and to accept each others' judgement in such matters.

"The Magistracy and Ministry joined both together and concurred in all things for the promoting of true Piety and Godlinesse... Great was the Love, and intimate was the affection which passed between the Patron of the Living, and this minister, so that they did mutually ingage to visit each other twice (at least) each week, and did seldom meet without praying together before they did part.

He prepared carefully before taking the Sacrament at Holy Communion, and led the Kedington congregation in proposing that every communicant should first publicly declare their faith and their acceptance of the baptism vows, in order to deter the common practise of openly wicked persons receiving the Lord's Supper.

He wished that his body, which had been a Temple of the Holy Spirit, should be wrapped in lead, if possible together with that of his father, and giving "forty pounds for the making of a vault in Ketton for the interring of mee and mine."

He summoned Samuel Fairclough from Suffolk to walk and confer with him on the worth and immortality of the soul, and of how it should subsist and act, when separated from the body; and of the joys of the other world, and of the vanity and emptiness of everything in this.

At their parting he said to Fairclough, "Sir, I now much wonder that any man who fully believes these things to be realities, and not meer notions (being in my condition) should be unwilling to dye; for my owne parte, I will not be so flattered with any carnal content[ment], as to be desirous to live longer in this World, where there is little hope left that the Lord hath any more work or service for me to do, except it be to suffer for keeping a good Conscience, in witnessing against the Apostacys and impieties of the Times; and now it is a great favour of God to be sent for speedily.

"[10]He then moved to London to be near his physicians, and at this time he read continually in Richard Baxter's lengthy work of theological contemplation, The Saints' Everlasting Rest.

On the day before his death his children and his brother gathered around his bed, and he gave them his last advice, bidding them to avoid wordliness and vainglory; to continue in love and unity together, amending each others' ways charitably; advising them not to fall away from truth and godliness because the Times were opposed to them; and commending to them the reading of the scriptures in conjunction with regular prayer.

[10] Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston died on 25 July, having lived fully 65 years, and his body was carried from London to Suffolk for burial.

[45][18] The full title of Suffolk's Tears refers to his "large and extraordinary bounty towards the advancing of Religion and Learning, both at home, and in Forreign Plantations among the Heathen."

When opened in 1915, the well-preserved lead coffins of Sir Nathaniel and Lady Jane Barnardiston were found in the southern or south-eastern chambers.

Free-standing above the upper moulding are a pair of sculpted urns, and some small skulls, set either side of an oval escutcheon in a foliate surround showing the impalement of Barnardiston (dexter: Azure, a fess indented ermine, between six cross-crosslets argent) with Soame (sinister: Gules, a chevron between three mallets or).