Barn Elms replaced the earlier one occupied by Sir Francis Walsingham, "Elizabeth's Spymaster". Queen Elizabeth I would visit Barn Elms to see her Spymaster. Barn Elms features in English literary history from the time the royalist poet Abraham Cowley moved to the house belonging to John Cartwright in 1663. In the 1660s Barn Elms became a fashionable destination for boating picnics. Samuel Pepys, who arranged many a Sunday afternoon or moonlit evening boating party to Barn Elms himself, recorded that on 26 May 1667: "I walked the length of the Elmes, and with great pleasure saw some gallant ladies and people come
Francis Harvey (MP for Colchester) Francis Harvey (MP for Colchester) Francis Harvey was an English politician. He was born in 1534, the second son of John Harvey of Ickworth, Suffolk by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Pope of Mildenhall, Suffolk. In 1571 and 1584–1587, he was the Member of Parliament for Colchester, Essex as the nominee of Sir Francis Walsingham. In 1589, he was elected MP for Knaresborough and in 1593 MP for Chippenham. He married, firstly, Mary, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Neville of Holt, Leicestershire and the widow of Sir John Smithand and, secondly, Camillia, the daughter of Vincent Guiccardini, Florentine merchant, who was