Miles Barne (politician born 1718)

Miles Barne (October 1718 – 27 December 1780) was a British land-owner and a Member of Parliament for Dunwich between 1747 and 1754, and again between 1764 and 1777. Born into a family long associated with London merchant circles, Barne accumulated sufficient wealth to purchase an estate in Suffolk and became prominent amongst local freeman. Dunwich in Suffolk, his constituency, was a pocket borough, controlled by the Downing land-owning family; Barne, the local Vanneck family and the freemen of the borough slowly ousted the Downings' influence and Barne established himself as one of the town's new members, which gave his family the seat until it was abolished in the 1832 Reforms.

Born in October 1718, Barne was the only son of Miles Barne, a London merchant and a Director of the East India Company, and his wife Elizabeth Snowdon, a daughter of Solomon Snowdon of York. The Barne family were based in London and traced their descent from Sir George Barne, a sixteenth century Lord Mayor of London.

The family had long been merchants in London and Miles Barne had accumulated enough funds to purchase a country estate in Suffolk which he did, in 1744, buying lands at Sotterley in that county; his 1745 marriage to the heiress of Nathaniel Elwick also secured him an inheritance in Kent, should he have issue.

Meanwhile, the "Rotten Borough" of Dunwich in Suffolk was effectively under the control of the local land-owner (see Pocket Borough), Sir George Downing, 3rd Bt., who attempted to have returned to Parliament his cousin and heir, Sir Jacob Downing, 4th Bt., as the second Member of Parliament for the seat; however, the local freemen disagreed and they asked Miles Barne, who had recently purchased his estate, to stand at the next election as their representative. He was returned in 1747 along with Sir George and was listed as a supporter of the Government, but Sir Jacob was able to reaffirm his control over the borough after Sir George's death in 1749 and won back the seat in the following election (1754), when Barne was not returned; however Barne continued to exert influence in the area, being patron of the Parish of Sotterley from 1758, meanwhile Elwick’s death in 1750 also brought his estates to Barne. He promised that, if he were still alive after Downing's death, he would contest the seat again.

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