John Harman

, commonly called Voysey and Veysey, because he was educated in his infancy (as ’tis said) by one of that name, Son of Will. Harman by Joan his Wife, daughter of Henr. Squyre of Handsworth in Staffordshire, was born at Sutton-Colfield in Warwickshire, became a student in this University in 1482. Probationer-fellow of Madg. coll. 28. July 86. and the year following true and perpetual Fellow, by the name of Joh. Harman only. In few years after he proceeded Doctor of the civil Law, and became Vicar of S. Michaels Church in Coventry, being then noted more for his faculty than divinity. In the beginning of June 1505. he was made Prebendary of North-Aulton in the Church of Salisbury, by the ceasing of one James Straytbarret, and was admitted thereunto by the name of Joh. Veyse; which Preb. he afterwards resigning, was succeeded by Dr. John Longland of Magd. coll. in the beginning of Decemb. 1514. But Longland being promoted in few days after to the Deanery of Sarum, Joh. Veyse was admitted to it again in the same month, and kept it till after he was Bishop. This person being esteemed well qualified, and of great abilities, was employed on sundry Embassies, was made Tutor to the Lady Mary then the Kings only daughter, and President of Wales. In 1515. he was made Dean of Windsore, being about that time Registrary of the most noble order of the Garter, Archdeacon of Chester, and Dean of the Kings domestick chappel; and soon after became Dean of the Free chappel of S. Peter and S. Paul at Wolverhampton in Staffordshire. In 1519. he was elected Bishop of Exeter, being then Dean of the Church there, had the temporalities of the said See (c)(c) Pat. 11. Hen. 8. p. 1. restored to him 4 Nov. and was consecrated thereunto on the 6. Dec. the same year. Of all the Bishops in England he was accounted the best Courtier, having been well bred from his youth; and altho he had a good report for his learning, yet he was better esteemed by some for his Court-like behaviour, which in the end turned not so much to his credit, as to the utter ruin and spoil of his Church. For of 22 Mannors and Lordships, which his predecessors had left unto him of a goodly yearly revenue, he left (d)(d) Job. Vowell alias Hooker in his Cat. of the Bishops of Exeter, printed in the life of Qu. Eliz. in R. Holinsheds Chron. See also in Fr. Godwin in Com. de praesul. Angl. int. Episc. Exon. but seven or eight, and them also leased out. And where he found fourteen houses well furnished, he left only one house bare and without furniture, and yet charged with sundry fees and annuities. By which means the said Bishoprick of Exeter, which was accounted one of the best, is now become in temporal Lands one of the meanest. Now if any person is desirous to understand what became of all the money which he got by the alienation of the said Mannors and Lordships, let him know that it was most expended (fearing perhaps that the said Lands might be taken away in the mutable times he lived in) on his native place of Sutton-Colfield, by making it a corporation, and procuring a Market there, building most of the Town, and endeavouring to set up the making there of Kersies, as in Devon. and Cornwall; which in the end, as ’tis said, proved to little purpose. Also by building and endowing a Freeschool there, building two bridges of stone, erecting a Mannour-house called More-place near to Sutton before-mentioned, besides other housing near it, Parks, Ponds, and I know not what, as you may see (e)(e) In the Antiquities of Warwickshire, by Will. Dugdale, p. 667, 668. elsewhere. In the reign of K. Ed. 6. when religion was alter’d, he the said Dr. Harman resign’d his Bishoprick, and on the 14. of Aug. 5. Ed. 6. Dom. 1551. Miles Coverdale D. of D. of Cambridge, was (f)(f) Pat. 5. Ed. 56. p. 1. Propter ejus singularem sacrarum literarum doctrinam, moresꝫ probatissimos, made Bishop in his place. In 1553. when Qu. Mary came to the Crown, Dr. Coverdale was put out, and the said Harman who was forced, as ’tis (g)(g) Pat. 1. Mar. p. 2. said, to give up his Bishoprick pro corporis metu, on the 14. of Aug. 5. Ed. 6. was restored (h)(h) Ibid. thereunto 28. Sept. in the year before-mentioned. So that living there for a time till he saw the R. Cath. Religion settled, retired to his native place again, where dying full of years (aged at least an hundred) in the summer time in fifteen hundred fifty and five, was buried on the north side of the chancel belonging to the Church at Sutton-Colfield before-mention’d, where is at this day a fair Monument remaining over his Grave, with his statua from head to foot cut out from stone adorn’d with the Pontificalia belonging to a Bishop.