In 1598, he was Sheriff of Kent (14 Elizabeth). On July 23, 1603 he was knighted by JAMES I (reigned 1603-1625). This was just a few months after James had ascended to the throne, following the death of ELIZABETH I (reigned 1558-1603). The patent of nobility granted to Sir Martin was the second of three known to have been granted by the Crown to members of the BARNHAM family in England. The arms of Sir Martin are blazoned as 'Quarterly, 1st and 4th sable across engrailed between four crescents argent, 2nd and 3rd azure aphaeon proper.' The crest is a dragon's head argent; the motto is Per Crucem ad Lumen -- Through the Cross to the Light. Sir Martin

The alabaster monument of Sir Martin BARNHAM, which stands in All Saints Church, Hollingbourne Hill, England is thus inscribed: 'Sacredto the memory of Sir Martin Barnham. Sprung from the old Southampton family of Barnhams, who married Ursula, daughter of Robert Rudstone, of Bouton, Monchelsey, and had two daughters and one son. On her death, he married Judith, the daughter of Sir Martin Calthorpe, Lord Mayor of London, by whom he had five sons and five daughters. He was a man on every side of gentle birth, most happy in the extreme piety of his life and death alike; on whom God of the boundless riches of His mercy poured (piled upon him) of this world's gifts of nature, Grace and Honor, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

The 'Genealogical Record of the Barnum Family' refers to Sir Martin's(1st) wife as Ursula Wotton, while Burke and the inscription quoted above call her Ursula Rudstone. Noah G. Barnum, in 'The Barnum Family,' calls her Miss Hudston.

'The Barnum Family' also says that Sir Martin was born about 1559 and died December 12, 1604.

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