BARTTELOT (BARTLETT), Walter (1585-1641), of Stopham, Suss.

The Barttelots settled at Stopham on the River Arun in west Sussex at the end of the fourteenth century and a member of that family was returned for the county in 1435. C.J. Robinson, ‘Stopham’ Suss. Arch. Colls. xxvii. 37-68; J.H. Round, ‘The Stophams, the Zouches, and the honour of Petworth’, Suss. Arch. Colls. lv. 21. Barttelot’s great-grandfather, William Barttelot, began his career as a servant of Thomas Cromwell† and became a member of the Sussex bench in the reign of Elizabeth, being described in 1587 as one of the ‘good justices’ and ‘ever a great favourer of religion’. LP Hen. VIII, xi. 326; ‘Cerificate Concerning the Justices of the Peace in Suss. in 1587’ ed. H. Ellis, Suss. Arch. Colls. ii. 59. One of the family was a servant of the earl of Northumberland at Petworth in 1604, and Barttelot’s brother was almost certainly the earl of Arundel’s water-bailiff by about 1613. Household Pprs. of Henry Percy, Ninth Earl of Northumberland ed. G.R. Batho (Cam. Soc. ser. 3. xciii), 149; J. Fowler, ‘High stream of Arundel’, Suss. County Mag. 391.

Barttelot inherited the family estates on the death of his father in 1614 and was appointed a justice of the peace five years later. He presumably owed his return for Bramber in 1625 to his father-in-law, John Middleton, who had taken over control of the estates of the Shelley family, important local landowners who had represented the borough in 1604 and 1614. He may also have had the support of Arundel, who owned the borough. He left no mark on the records of the first Caroline Parliament. He was removed from the Sussex bench early in 1626, but this did not prevent his re-election for Bramber. During the 1626 Parliament he was added to a committee to consider two naturalization bills on 28 Mar. and attended one of its meetings. Procs. 1626, ii. 385; 229; C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 229. In the years following the dissolution he showed no discernable sign of ever wanting to seek re-election.

Barttelot was restored to the Sussex commission of the peace by the autumn of 1626, and in September of that year he obtained a 21-year lease of lands that had come into the hands of the Crown due to his stepmother’s recusancy. C66/2373/8. In or about 1627 he and his brother-in-law Thomas Middleton† secured a lease of the Pallingham furnace in Wisborough Green. C2/Chas.I/B88/45; E. Straker, Wealden Iron, 425. In 1630 he compounded for knighthood at £10, but nine years later he failed to contribute to the Scots war. ‘Suss. Gentry in 1630’ ed. C.E. Welch, Suss. N and Q, xvi. 47; Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 914. He died intestate on 1 Jan. 1641 and was buried in Stopham church, which he had himself restored in the 1630s. Administration was granted of his estate on 25 February. C.E.D. Davidson-Houston, ‘Suss. Monumental Brasses’ Suss. Arch. Colls. lxxx. 92-109; PROB 6/18, f. 14. No member of the family entered Parliament again until 1860. Robinson, 47.