Barker was born before 1522 and educated in the University of Cambridge at the cost of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England.
[1] After some years spent travelling in Italy, he published Epitaphia et inscriptiones lugubres.
[2] He was one of the Duke of Norfolk's secretaries, and was deeply implicated in that nobleman's plots.
About 4 September 1571, as a result of the discovery of the Ridolfi Plot, he was committed to the Tower of London.
Barker spent two years in the Tower and then retreated into obscurity and he was last heard of in 1576.