SIR FRANCIS BARNHAM,
Scholar and Politician,
Was the son of Martin Barnham, of Hollingbourne. His mother was Judith, daughter of Sir Martin Calthorpe, of London, and he was a nephew of Benedict Barnham, of London, who re-built the front of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford. He was knighted by James I. on that monarch's accession and represented Grampound in Parliament in 1603 and 1614; and was subsequently five times elected for Maidstone in the Parliamentarian interest. In 1613 he succeeded to the estate of Boughton Monchelsea, where he died in 1646. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, who was made a Baronet in 1663. He was a friend of Sir Henry Wotton and Sir Roger Twysden, and one of the eighty-four persons selected to form a Royal Academy of Literature in 1617.
[See "Hasted's Kent," "Burke's Extinct Baronetage," and Biographical Dictionaries."]