Sir Abel Barker, 1st Baronet (c.1616 – 1679) was an English politician.[1]
Barker was the son of Abel Barker and Elizabeth Wright. In 1637 he inherited the manor of Hambleton, Rutland, from his father and he prospered as a large-scale sheep-farmer. During the English Civil War, Barker supported Parliament and he served on the Rutland county committee. In 1646 he was appointed High Sheriff of Rutland and he served as a justice of the peace for the county between 1647 and 1653. In 1656, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Rutland in the Second Protectorate Parliament, representing the seat until 1658. In 1659 he served as commissioner for militia in Rutland.[1]
Barker supported the Stuart Restoration in 1660 and was a signatory of the loyal address to Charles II of England. He was proposed as a Knight of the Royal Oak in 1660 with an estate of £1,000 per year. In 1661 he stood unsuccessfully against Edward Noel for re-election to parliament. His success as a farmer and landlord enabled him to construct a manor at Lyndon, Rutland and purchase a baronetcy; on the 9 September 1665 he was made a baronet, of Hambleton in the Baronetage of England. In 1679, he was again returned as the member for Rutland, but died before the Second Exclusion Parliament convened.[1]
He was married twice, and was succeeded in his baronetcy by his son from his first marriage, Thomas.[1] The title became extinct on the death of the second baronet in 1707.