Thomas Barrie

Thomas Barrie (died 1538 in Newbury, Berkshire) was an English almoner who was found guilty of spreading rumours about the death of Henry VIII in 1538 and was pilloried in the market square at Newbury.

Biography Barrie was an almsman at Donnington Hospital where he worked until he died, living in one of the institution's almshouses. Henry did not die until nine years later. Though Barrie's rumours were supposedly well-sourced, This was shown two years later in 1540, when Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury, was charged with the same crime, along with breaking the new Buggery Act, and was beheaded on Tower Hill. and, for further ridicule, he was to be cropped. This punishment (also given to John Bastwick 100 years later ) involved nailing Barrie's ears to the pillory's frame on either side of the head hole. At the end of the trading day, he was released from the pillory by cutting off his ears.