^{page 1 note 1} This introduction is a shortened version of that which appears in the present writer's ‘Letters of the Barrington Family, 1628 32’ (M.Phil. thesis, University of Leeds, 1982). A more detailed and more fully annotated account, in particular of the growth and value of the family estate, will be found there.

^{page 1 note 2} Eg. 2644, f. 151.

^{page 1 note 3} T.E.A.S., n.s., i. 252, 253.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 4} T.E.A.S., n.s., ii. 8.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 5} E.R.O., D/DQs 45. Francis Quarles, who was godson to Sir Francis Barrington, considered descent from the Barringtons to be enough to fill even ‘Th'insatiate vastnesse of an Heraults tongue’. Quarles, Hosanna and Threnodes, ed. Horden, J., (Liverpool, 1960), 27.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 1} Hexter, J. H., The Reign of King Pym (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), 78.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 2} E.R.O., D/DHt T126/23. This is the marriage settlement. Only a single fragment of the early parish register of Hatfield Broad Oak survives, so that precise dates of marriage, baptism and burial of members of the family are often in doubt.

^{page 3 note 1} E.R.O., D/DBa F7.

^{page 3 note 2} Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1553 4, 147–8Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 3} B.L., Add. Ch. 28634, 28635.

^{page 3 note 4} Eg. 2644, ff. 157 165.

^{page 4 note 1} E.R.O., D/DB T16/2,3; D. Shorrocks, ‘Hatfield Forest, 1547 1857’, Essex Review, lxiv (1955), 57; P.R.O., C2. Jas. I, B9.2(1).

^{page 4 note 2} E.R.O:, D/DBa T8/16.

^{page 4 note 3} E.R.O., D/DU 472/7; Northumberland R.O., Alnwick MSS. XII.7. Box 2b.

^{page 4 note 4} E.R.O., D/DB L1/3/7.

^{page 4 note 5} Bamford, F., A Royalist's Notebook (1936), 137.Google Scholar

^{page 5 note 1} I.O.W.R.O., SW 227, 241, 242, 244, 247, 248.

^{page 5 note 2} I.O.W.R.O., OG 16/4, 50; letters 246–248.

^{page 5 note 3} E.R.O., D/DBa E10; V.C.H., Yorks., East Riding, i (Hull), 371 72.

^{page 5 note 4} E.R.O., D/DBa E60, L18, Z11 and D/DK T111; V.C.H., Herts., ii. 199–200.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 1} E.R.O., D/DBa A41/3.

^{page 6 note 2} E.R.O., D/DBa A41/4.

^{page 6 note 3} E.R.O., D/DHt T126/36, 37, 39, 40, 43, 59, D/DU 472/14 and D/DA T177.

^{page 7 note 1} E.R.O., D/DBa A15, ff. l 7 (end reversed).

^{page 7 note 2} Colvin, , 181–182Google Scholar; Samaha, J., Law and Order in Historical Perspective (1974), 151Google Scholar; T.E.A.S., n.s., ii. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 7 note 3} E.R.O., T/A 401/2, D/DBa 013A; Colvin, 55 56; A.P.C., 1601–4, 264Google Scholar; Quintrell, B.W., ‘The Government of the County of Essex, 1603–1642’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1965).Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 1} Eg. 2644, ff. 130–153; Bohannon, M. E., ‘The Essex Election of 1604’, English Historical Review, xlviii (1933), 395–413CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thompson, C., ‘The Third Lord Rich and the Essex Election of 1604’, Essex Journal., xiv (1979), 2–6.Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 2} B.L., Harl, 390, f. 123; Bodl., Firth C4, p. 247.

^{page 8 note 3} Ibid. pp. 249–66.

^{page 8 note 4} A.P.C., June Dec. 1626, 328Google Scholar; C.S.P.D., 1625 6, 469.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 1} Bodl., Firth C4, pp. 298–300; A.P.C., Jan–Aug, 1627, 130 et seq.; Birch, , i. 206–208Google Scholar. I am grateful to Miss H. E. P. Grieve for allowing me access to her research on the history of Chelmsford.

^{page 9 note 2} T.E.A.S., n.s., ii. 23Google Scholar; B.L., Harl. 390, f. 273; A.P.C. Jan–Aug, 1627, 346–47.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 3} Birch, , i. 323Google Scholar; B.L., Harl. 390, f. 361 and Harl. 6799, ff. 228, 324; Journals of the House of Commons, i. 876–77.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 4} Letters 3, 7; Giles Firmin, The Real Christian (1670), epistle dedicatory.

^{page 10 note 1} P.R.O., Index 4211, f. 168v; E.R.O., Q/SR 263/93; letters 29, 44.

^{page 10 note 2} P.R.O., S.P. 16/168/50.

^{page 10 note 3} P.R.O., S.P. 16/205/83; letters 213, 215.

^{page 11 note 1} Kent County Archives, Sackville MSS (U).

^{page 11 note 2} C.S.P.Col., 1547–1660, 147Google Scholar; letter 186.

^{page 11 note 3} Wilton, Moses, The Sermons of Master Ralfe Gualter upon the Prophet ZaphaniahGoogle Scholar (1580), epistle dedicatory. Wilton, rector of Fleet in Lincolnshire from 1582, was the son-in-law of William Josselin, a substantial yeoman landowner of Hatfield Broad Oak. E.R.O., D/ABW 21/177 and D/DBa F13/1.

^{page 12 note 1} E.R.O., Q/SR 78/46, 79/89, 82/53; T.E.A.S., n.s., ii. 10.Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 2} Eg. 2644, f. 172; B.L., Add. 38492; Smith, 19, 20.

^{page 12 note 3} B.L., Hari. 390, f. 192; Eg. 2644, ff. 236, 250; E.R.O., D/DBa F5/1.

^{page 12 note 4} Yarrow, Robert, Soveraigne Comforts for a Troubled Conscience (1619)Google Scholar; Wing, John, The Saints Advantage (1624).Google Scholar

^{page 13 note 1} Greater London R.O., D/LC 338, ff. 203b, 217b; P.R.O., Prob. 11/45; Collinson, P., The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (1967), 379Google Scholar; E.R.O., D/ABW 21/177.

^{page 13 note 2} Eg. 2644, f. 230; Smith, 49, 55.

^{page 13 note 3} Mather, Cotton, Magnalia Christi Americana (Hertford, Connecticut, 1858), i. 408–413Google Scholar; Eg. 2644, ff. 196, 203.

^{page 13 note 4} Mather, , i. 409.Google Scholar

^{page 14 note 1} Eg. 2644, f. 201; Marchant, R. A., The Puritans and the Church Courts, 1560 1640 (1960), 63, 238.Google Scholar

^{page 14 note 2} Letter 219.

^{page 14 note 3} E.R.O., D/DBa A.15 passim.

^{page 14 note 4} Eg. 2644, f. 24.

^{page 15 note 1} Letter 41.

^{page 15 note 2} E.R.O., D/DBa F43; Eg. 2644, f. 230.

^{page 15 note 3} Letter 57.

^{page 15 note 4} Letter 38.

^{page 15 note 5} Searle, A., ‘Overmuch Liberty: Roger Williams in Essex’, Essex Journal, iii (1968), 85–92.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 1} Letter 206.

^{page 16 note 2} P.R.O., P.C.C. wills, 70 Barrington.

^{page 16 note 3} G.E.C., Baronetage; E.R.O., D/DBa L20.

^{page 16 note 4} Eg. 2646, ff. 50, 62, 102. Each of them, like the letter printed with letter 168, is written in the hand of To by Bridge and signed rather shakily by Lady Joan.

^{page 17 note 1} E.R.O., D/DBa A15.

^{page 18 note 1} T.E.A.S., n.s., iii. 155–176Google Scholar and E.R.O., D/DBa E3, inventories of Hatfield Priory in 1629 and 1632. The 1629 inventory ‘Of all such goods in Hatfeilde Priorie as weare delivered to Sir Thomas Barrington’ was taken on 26 June, ten days after Lady Joan left the house. The original is now lost.

^{page 18 note 2} He can be identified as the regicide Isaac Ewers, ‘at first but a serving man’. D.N.B.; Eg. 2647, f. 31.

^{page 19 note 1} Brathwait, Richard, The English Gentlewoman (1631), 205.Google Scholar

^{page 19 note 2} Eg. 2644, f. 205.

^{page 20 note 1} She was the sister-in-law of Sir Francis Barrington's steward Richard Hildersham. Her will indicates that she had been in the service of Lady Winifred Hastings. E.R.O., D/ABW 53/100.

^{page 20 note 2} Population estimated from E.R.O., T/A 420 and Q/RTh 5.

^{page 21 note 1} Scott was the brother-in-law of Lady Joan's protégé Lady Mary Eliot. Letter 3.

^{page 21 note 2} Letter 188.

^{page 21 note 3} P.R.O., P.C.C. wills, 151 Evelyn.

^{page 21 note 4} Quarles, 25. More detail of Quarles's connections with the Essex gentry is to be found in Höltgen, K.J., Francis Quarles, 1592 1644 (Tübingen, 1978).Google Scholar

^{page 21 note 5} A partial reconstruction of the components of the original archive is given by Emmison, F. G. in Archives, viii (1968), 130–132Google Scholar and in Guide to the Essex Record Office (Chelmsford, 1969), 124–126Google Scholar. The modern movement of the archive is succinctly traced by N. Briggs in Bulletin of the National Register of Archives, 14 (1967), 19–21.Google Scholar

^{page 22 note 1} E.R.O., T/P 195/16; Trinity College MSS., Box 9, III. g; T.E.A.S., n.s., ix. 113.Google Scholar

^{page 22 note 2} Lowndes (Barrington) MSS., H.M.C., 7th Report, Appendix, 537 589. Horwood had reported briefly on the manuscripts to the annual general meeting of the Essex Archaeological Society at Hatfield Broad Oak in 1874; T.E.A.S., n.s., i. 127.Google Scholar

^{page 24 note 1} Letter 12.

^{page 24 note 2} Letter 214. In the notes to the letters reference has been made to Dahl and Birch to supply or confirm a date, or to reveal a significant time difference between the letter and the printed source.