The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth. active 1559-1577 John Awdelay
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of Surry, esq.[14] His descendant, William Harman, sold both these places in the reign of K. James I. to Robert Draper, esqr."—History of Kent, vol. i. p. 209.
The manor of Maxton, in the parish of Hougham "passed to Hobday, and thence to Harman, of Crayford; from which name it was sold by Thomas Harman to Sir James Hales.... William Harman held the manor of Mayton, alias Maxton, with its appurtenances, of the Lord Cheney, as of his manor of Chilham, by Knight's service. Thomas Harman was his son and heir: Rot. Esch. 2 Edw. VI."—Hasted's History of Kent, vi. p. 47.
"It is laid down as a rule, that nothing but an act of parliament can change the nature of gavelkind lands; and this has occasioned several [acts], for the purpose of disgavelling the possessions of divers gentlemen in this county.... One out of several statutes made for this purpose is the 3rd of Edw. VI."—Hasted's History of Kent, vol. i. p. cxliii.
And in the list of names given,—taken from Robinson's Gavelkind—twelfth from the bottom stands that of Thomas Harman.
Of Thomas Harman's aunt, Mary, Mrs William Lovelace, we find: "John Lovelace, esq., and William Lovelace, his brother, possessed this manor and seat (Bayford-Castle) between them; the latter of whom resided at Bayford, where he died in the 2nd year of K. Edward VI., leaving issue by Mary his wife, daughter of William Harman, of Crayford, seven sons...."—Hasted's History of Kent, vol. ii. p. 612.
The rectory of the parish of Deal was bestowed by the Archbishop on Roger Harman in 1544 (Hasted, vol. iv. p. 171).
Harman-street is the name of a farm in the parish of Ash (Hasted, vol. iii. p. 691).
HARRISON ON ENGLISH VAGABONDS IN 1577-86 A.D.
The excellent parson, William Harrison, in his 'Description of England,' prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles (edit. 1586), quotes Harman fairly enough in his chapter "Of prouision made for the poore," Book II, chap. 10.[15] And as he gives a statement of the sharp punishment enacted for idle rogues and vagabonds by the Statutes of Elizabeth, I take a long extract from his said chapter. After speaking of those who are made 'beggers through other mens occasion,' and denouncing the grasping landlords 'who make them so, and wipe manie out of their occupiengs,' Harrison goes on to those who are beggars 'through their owne default' (p. 183, last line of col. 1, ed. 1586):
"Such as are idle beggers through their owne default are of two sorts, and continue their estates either by casuall or meere voluntarie meanes: those that are such by casuall means [16]are in the beginning[16] iustlie to be referred either to the first or second sort of poore [16]afore mentioned[16]; but, degenerating into the thriftlesse sort, they doo what they can to continue their miserie; and, with such impediments as they haue, to straie and wander about, as creatures abhorring all labour and euerie honest excercise. Certes, I call these casuall meanes, not in respect of the originall of their pouertie, but of the continuance of the same, from whence they will not be deliuered, such[17] is their owne vngratious lewdnesse and froward disposition. The voluntarie meanes proceed from outward causes, as by making of corosiues, and applieng the same to the more fleshie parts of their bodies; and also laieng of ratsbane, sperewort, crowfoot, and such like vnto their whole members, thereby to raise pitifull[18] and odious sores, and mooue [16]the harts of[16] the goers by such places where they lie, to [19]yerne at[19] their miserie, and therevpon[16] bestow large almesse vpon them.[20] How artificiallie they beg, what forcible speech, and how they select and choose out words of vehemencie, whereby they doo in maner coniure or adiure the goer by to pitie their cases, I passe ouer to remember, as iudging the name of God and Christ to be more conuersant in the mouths of none, and yet the presence of the heuenlie maiestie further off from no men than from this vngratious companie. Which maketh me to thinke, that punishment is farre meeter for them than liberalitie or almesse, and sith Christ willeth vs cheeflie to haue a regard to himselfe and his poore members.
"Vnto this nest is another sort to be referred, more sturdie than the rest, which, hauing sound and perfect lims, doo yet, notwithstanding sometime counterfeit the possession of all sorts of diseases. Diuerse times in their apparell also[21] they will be like seruing men or laborers: oftentimes they can plaie the mariners, and seeke for ships which they neuer lost.[22] But, in fine, they are all theeues and caterpillers in the commonwealth, and, by the word of God not permitted to eat, sith they doo but licke the sweat from the true laborers' browes, and beereue the godlie poore of that which is due vnto them, to mainteine their excesse, consuming the charitie of well-disposed people bestowed vpon them, after a most wicked[23] and detestable maner.
"It is not yet full threescore[24] yeares since this trade began: but how it hath prospered since that time, it is easie to iudge; for they are now supposed, of one sex and another, to amount vnto aboue 10,000 persons, as I haue heard reported. Moreouer, in counterfeiting the Egyptian roges, they haue deuised a language among themselues, which they name Canting (but other pedlers French)—a speach compact thirtie yeares since of English, and a great number of od words of their owne deuising, without all order or reason: and yet such is it as none but themselues are able to vnderstand. The first deuiser thereof was hanged by the necke,—a iust reward, no doubt, for his deserts, and a common end to all of that profession. A gentleman, also, of Thomas Harman.late hath taken great paines to search out the secret practises of this vngratious rabble. And among other things he setteth downe and describeth [25]three and twentie[25] sorts of them, whose names it shall not be amisse to remember, wherby ech one may [26]take occasion to read and know as also by his industrie[26] what wicked people they are, and what villanie remaineth in them.
"The seuerall disorders and degrees amongst our idle vagabonds:—
1. Rufflers.
2. Vprightmen.
3. Hookers or Anglers.
4. Roges.
5. Wild Roges.
6. Priggers of Prancers.
7. Palliards.
8. Fraters.
9. Abrams.
10. Freshwater mariners, or Whipiacks.
11. Dummerers.
12. Drunken tinkers.
13. Swadders, or Pedlers.
14. Iarkemen, or Patricoes.
Of Women kinde—
1. Demanders for