1506-1534
Born in Aldington, Barton was in service to a farmer, Thomas Cobb who worked for Archbishop William Warham, when she began to gain visions from 1525.
Barton claimed to have had visions and divine revelations. This included the death of a child living in her household or, more frequently, pleas for people to remain in the Catholic Church.
Thousands believed in her prophecies and both Archbishop William Warham and Bishop John Fisher attested to her pious life.
In 1527 Robert Redman published A marueilous woorke of late done at Court of Streete in Kent which discussed all of Barton’s “miracles, revelations, and prophecies” and the controversies leading up to the arrests and executions.
In 1528, Barton held a private meeting with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the second most powerful man in England, and met Henry VIII twice. Henry accepted Barton because her prophecies warned against heresy and condemned rebellion at a time when Henry was attempting to stamp out Lutheranism and was afraid of possible uprising or even assassination by his enemies.
However, from 1534 Barton opposed the king in his desire to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon. In one prophesy she claimed the king would die within months if he carried on his affair with Anne Boleyn.
With her continuing to be political, her support began to ebb away leading to vulnerability. She was arrested for treason in 1533, forced to confess that she fabricated her revelations and was hung at Tyburn 20th April 1534.