Henry Barley

Henry Barley or Barlee (1487 – 12 November 1529), of Albury, Hertfordshire, was a Member of Parliament during the Tudor period.

Henry Barley, born about 1487, was the son of William Barley (1451–1521) of Albury, Hertfordshire, and Elizabeth Darcy (died 1520), the daughter of Sir Robert Darcy of Danbury, Essex. He had two sisters:

Although in 1495 Barley’s father, William, was attainted of treason for his support of Perkin Warbeck, and thereby forfeited his property to the Crown, he was pardoned three years later, and by 1501 was once again in possession of his lands, including the manors of Wicken, Elsenham, Albury, Wickhamstead and Moulsham.

Henry Barley was admitted to the Middle Temple on 3 February 1511. He served as a commissioner for goal delivery and for the subsidy in Hertfordshire, and served as a Justice of the Peace for the county from 1521 until his death. He succeeded his father in 1522 and was appointed Sheriff and Hertfordshire for 1523–24. In 1529 he was elected to Parliament for Hertfordshire.

Barley died 12 November 1529. He left a will dated 20 October 1529 in which he requested burial beside his first wife, Elizabeth, in the parish church at Albury, and appointed his sister, Anne (née Barley), as one of his executors.

Barley married firstly, before 1517, Elizabeth Northwood, the daughter and coheir of John Northwood of Milton alias Middleton, Kent, by whom he had two sons and three daughters:

He is said to have married secondly a wife named Anne about whom nothing further is known.