[Illustration] A very remote but the only remaining branch of what
was in former ages the most important family in Suffolk, descended
from Geoffry de Barnardiston, of Barnardiston in this county, who
was living in the reign of Edward I., and who by his marriage with
the daughter and coheir of Newmarch became possessed of the
adjoining manor of Kedington or Ketton, which continued the seat and
residence of the Barnardistons, created Baronet in 1663, until the
death of Sir John the sixth Baronet of Ketton, in 1745. The present
family descended from Thomas Barnardiston, a merchant in London, who
died in 1681, fifth son of Sir Thomas of Ketton, Knight, and Mary,
daughter of Sir Richard Knightley. Besides the elder and principal
line of Ketton, other branches were of Brightwell in this county,
(created Baronets in 1663, extinct in 1721,) and of Northill, co.
Bedford, extinct in 1778.
See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 396; and Davy's Suffolk Collections in
the British Museum, Add. MSS. 19,116, p. 537, for long and
interesting accounts of this remarkable family.
ARMS.--_Azure, a fess dancettée ermine between six cross-crosslets
argent_.
Present Representative, Nathaniel Clarke Barnardiston. Esq.