Editing Praise-God Barebone

{{Short description|English radical Puritan preacher (c. 1598–1679)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox Politician (general)
|name = Praise-God Barebone/Barbon
|image = Praise-god Barebone.jpg
|birth_date = {{circa|1598}}
|birth_place = 
|residence = 
|death_date = 1679
|death_place = 
|office = [[Member of Parliament#United Kingdom|Member of Parliament]] in [[Barebone's Parliament]]
|party = 
|spouse = 
|profession= [[Preacher]], leather-seller
}}

'''Praise-God Barebone''' (sometimes spelled '''Barbon''')<ref>The surname is also spelled ''Barbon'' or ''Barbone''.</ref> ({{circa|1598–1679}}) was an English leather-seller, [[preacher]], and [[Fifth Monarchists|Fifth Monarchist]]. He is best known for giving his name to the [[Barebone's Parliament]] of the [[English Commonwealth]] of 1653.<ref>In notes of a trial in an ecclesiastical case to which Dr. William Bates was a party, Barbon in giving evidence incidentally mentioned that he was eighty years of age. This was in 1676, which would place his year of birth around 1596 ({{harvnb|Grosart|1885|p=151}} cites Malcolm, ''Londinium Redivivum'', iii. 453). Stephen Wright, the author of his entry in the 21st century ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', lists the date of birth as {{circa}} 1598 without citing a source {{harv|Wright|2006}}.</ref>

==Early life==
Little is known of Barebone's early life. Writing in 2001, Nicholas Tyacke speculated that he may have been the son of John Barebone, rector of [[Charwelton]] in [[Northamptonshire]], by his marriage to Mary Roper of [[Daventry]], and that he may have had an older brother called Fear-God (a minor poet) but this possibility lacks supporting evidence because the Charwelton [[parish register]] for that period has been lost.{{sfn|Tyacke|2001|p=95}}

The first that is known about him is that he became a freeman of the [[Leathersellers' Company]] in January 1623, having served an eight- or nine-year apprenticeship. He was elected a warden of the yeomanry of the leather-sellers in 1630, and a [[liveryman]] in 1634. In 1630 he married his wife Sarah, with whom he later had at least one son, [[Nicholas Barbon]], an economist{{sfn|Wright|2006}} known as the father of fire insurance.<ref>https://www.britannica.com/money/Nicholas-Barbon<r</ref>

There is some confusion over the use of the [[hortatory]] name 'Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned' in the Barebone family. One source claims this was Praise-God's baptismal name;{{sfn|Letwin|1963}} others claim this was his brother's name;<ref>Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5OEaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA239 ''The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature''], 1816. Vol. 11, Article IV 'The History and Antiquity of Dissenting Churches, etc'</ref><ref>Charles W Bardsley, [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39284/39284-h/39284-h.htm ''Curiosities of the Puritan Nomenclature''], 1880</ref> and more modern sources claim a variant on this name was given to his son Nicholas.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

==Religion==
By 1632, Barebone had joined the semi-separatist congregation founded in 1616 by [[Henry Jacob]], later to be led by [[John Lothropp]] and then, from 1637, by [[Henry Jessey]]. By December 1641 he had begun preaching to audiences at his premises at the Lock and Key, at the lower end of [[Fleet Street]] near Fetter Lane. On 19 December of that year, his sermon against bishops and the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' attracted hostile attention from apprentices, who smashed the premises' windows.

{{quote|...&nbsp;he was preaching in his house to a hundred or a hundred and fifty people, "as many women as men", when a hostile crowd gathered outside and begun to break the windows. A constable came and arrested some of the separatists, but order was not fully restored until [[Sir Richard Gurney, 1st Baronet|the lord mayor]] and sheriffs arrived.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The English People and the English Revolution|last=Manning|first=Brian|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1976|isbn=978-0140551372|location=Great Britain|pages=[https://archive.org/details/englishpeopleeng00mann/page/52 52]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/englishpeopleeng00mann/page/52}}</ref>}}

Some of Barebone's congregation were taken to the [[Bridewell Palace|Bridewell prison]], others to the [[Compter|Counters]], and still others made their escape over the roof-tops, while the crowd was left to destroy his shop-sign.{{sfn|Wright|2006}}

The following month more than fifty people, including many members or former members of Jessey's church, were rebaptised by immersion, in London. Barebone strongly disagreed with these advocates of believers' baptism, and within a few weeks he issued ''A Discourse Tending to Prove the Baptism&nbsp;... to be the Ordinance of Jesus Christ''. The claim that Barebone himself was an [[Anabaptist]] is likely to derive from post-[[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]] critics. A second work, ''A Reply to the Frivolous and Impertinent Answer of RB'', was published in the spring of 1643. In the next few years Barebone was involved in conflicts with those who controlled the vestry of [[St Dunstan-in-the-West]], and with Francis Kemp, the lawyer who acted for them. Barebone later joined the sect known as the [[Fifth Monarchists]], known for their [[millenarianism]].{{sfn|Wright|2006}}

==Appointment to the Nominated Assembly==
In July 1653 Barebone was appointed to sit as a representative of the [[City of London (UK Parliament constituency)|City of London]] in the Nominated Assembly, a body set up after the expulsion of the [[Rump Parliament]] by [[Oliver Cromwell]]. The Assembly, whose members were chosen by Cromwell and the Army Council instead of being elected, soon became known as [[Barebone's Parliament]] to its many critics, Barebone proving a likely target due to his name and his apparently humble origins.

Barebone, who was never chosen to sit in the Assembly's Council of State, was an active member. He sat on a committee on [[tithes]] set up on 19 July 1653, and he was also one of the first members of the committee established on 19 August to consider law reform. In late July he was tasked with placating large numbers of women who were demonstrating at Westminster in support of [[John Lilburne]].{{sfn|Wright|2006}}

==Later career==
Barebone was elected to the [[City of London Corporation#Court of Common Council|Common Council]] of the [[City of London]] for the year 1657 and re-elected until 1660. After the restoration of the [[Rump Parliament]], he was nominated to the London militia committee under the Act of 7 July 1659. In 1660, Barebone endeavoured to prevent the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of the English monarchy. He published [[Marchamont Needham]]'s book ''News from Brussels in a Letter from a Near Attendant on His Majesty's Person...'', which related unfavourable anecdotes about the prospective king of England, [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]. Along with other "well-affected citizens" in London, he also presented an address to the Rump Parliament in February 1660 urging that they "use all possible Endeavours to prevent the Commonwealth's Adversaries in this their most dangerous Stratagem" and subsequently received the thanks of the House.<ref>Anon, ''The Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England;: From the Earliest Times, to the Restoration of King Charles II'', vol xxii (1763), p. 96</ref>

When the same Parliament had its secluded members of 1648 readmitted, paving the way for the Restoration, celebratory bonfires were lit in London by young apprentices, and Barebone "had but little thanks of the boyes, for they broke all his glass windows that belonged to the front of his house".<ref>Thomas Rugg, ed. William L. Sachse, ''The Diurnal of Thomas Rugg 1659-1661'' (1961), p. 39</ref> In July 1660, following the Restoration, a royalist tract called ''The Picture of the Good Old Cause Drawn to the Life'' reprinted a petition he had made in February calling for Members of Parliament to deny rule by Charles II or any other single person.

As a result of these views, he was arrested on 25 November 1661 and charged with treason alongside [[Sir James Harrington, 3rd Baronet|James Harrington]] and [[Samuel Moyer]]. He was then imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]]. He was freed on 27 July 1662 after a petition from his wife pleading his illness. In 1666, his premises were one of the most westerly buildings to be engulfed in the [[Great Fire of London]].{{sfn|Wright|2006}}
Barebone died at the end of 1679 and was buried on 5 January 1680 in the parish of [[St Andrew Holborn (church)#Notable_interments|St Andrew Holborn]].{{sfn|Wright|2006}}

==Works==
*''A Discourse tending to prove ... Baptism ... to be the ordinance of Jesus Christ. As also that the Baptism of Infants is warentable''. 1642. The preface indicates Barebone's religious tolerance.
*''A Reply to the Frivolous and Impertinent answer of R.B. and E.B. to the Discourse of P.B.''. 1643. 
*''Good Things to Come''. 1675.  In this Barebone looked forward to the imminent arrival of [[Jesus Christ]]: "his kingdom and reign shall be outward, and visible on earth... when he shall come the second time, in power and great glory" (p.&nbsp;10).

==Family==
His eldest son was the economist [[Nicholas Barbon]].

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
{{EB1911 poster|Barbon, Praise-God}}
*{{Cite DNB|last=Grosart |first=Alexander Balloch |wstitle=Barbon, Praisegod |volume=3 |pages=151–153}}
*{{cite book|last=Letwin |first=William |year=1963 |title=Origins of Scientific Economics: English Economic Thought, 1660–1776 |publisher=Methuen |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9ec1AQAAIAAJ]}}
*{{cite book|last=Tyacke |first=Nicholas |year=2001 |title=Aspects of English Protestantism, {{c.}}1530–1700 |edition=illustrated |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=9780719053924 | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=McvcmiZ6h8gC&pg=PA95 95]}}
*{{ODNB|last=Wright |first=Stephen |title=Barbon [Barebone], Praisegod ({{c.}}1598–1679/80) |orig-year=2004 |date=2006 |id=1335}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barebone, Praise-God}}
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[[Category:1590s births]]
[[Category:1679 deaths]]
[[Category:English MPs 1653 (Barebones)]]
[[Category:Fifth Monarchists]]
[[Category:Writers from London]]
[[Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London]]