Robert Harris

a famed puritanical Preacher of his time, was born at Broad-Camden in Glocestershire, an. 1578, educated partly in the Free-school at Cheping-Camden, and partly in the Free-school at Worcester under Mr. Hen. Bright. Thence he removed to Magd. Hall in the latter end of 1595, took one degree in Arts, holy Orders, and preached for some time near Oxon, (at Stadham as it seems) and at length being made Rector of Hanwell near to Banbury in Oxfordshire, was admitted to the reading of the Sentences in 1614. There he continued till the Civil War broke out in 1642, in all which time be was a constant Lecturer in those parts, which, with other Lectures in mercat Towns, were the chief promoters of the Rebellion. Upon pretence of great trouble and danger that might ensue from the Soldiers of each party when the War began, he retired to London, was made one of the Assembly of Divines, and Minister of S. Botolphs Church near Bishopsgate in that City. In 1646 he was appointed one of the six Ministers or Apostles to go to Oxon to preach the Scholars into obedience [•] o the Parliament, and about that time had the rich Rectory of Petersfield in Hampshire confer’d upon him, which he kept with Hanwell for a time. In 1647 he was made one of the Visitors of the University of Oxon by Authority of Parliament, and in the year following he was actually created Doct. of Div. and made President of Trin. Coll. by the said Authority, and so consequently Rector of Garsingdon near to Oxon. In 1654 he, with Dr. Jo. Owen, Dr. Tho. Goodwin, Dr. Hen. Wilkinson of Ch. Ch. Dr. Edm. Staunton of C. C. Coll. &c. were appointed Assistants to the Commissioners of Oxfordshire to eject scandalous and ignorant Ministers and School-masters, as they were then called; in which office he, and they, were not a little busie. What else the Reader is desirous to know of him, may be seen in his life, (such as ’tis) written by his Friend and Kinsman Will. Durham, whom I shall hereafter mention. In the mean time the Reader is to know that Dr. Harris wrot and published these things following.

Nine and thirty sermons.

Treatise of the Covenant of Grace.

Remedy against Covetousness.—Most, or all, of which, having been printed severally, were printed in one Volume at Lond. 1635, fol. and went by the name of Mr. Harris his works.

Several sermons, being a supplement to his works formerly printed in fol. Lond. 1654. Soon after these sermons and the aforesaid works were all printed together with this title, Dr. Rob. Harris his works revised and corrected, and collected into one Volume, with an addition of sundry sermons, &c. Lond. 1654. 55. fol. Among which are two parliamentary sermons and his Concio ad clerum, 1. Oxoniae jamdudum habita, 2. Dein posthabita & repudiata, 3. Nunc demum in lucem edita, on Joh. 21. part of the 17 and all the 18 vers. This with another Lat. serm. of Dr. Dan. Featly were printed at Utrecht in 1657 in tw. and both intit. Pedum pastorale, &c.

Advice and council to his family—Written in 1636 and printed at the end of his life.

Two letters in vindication of himself from the slanders of an unknown Writer.—Printed 1648 in one sh. in qu. The said unknown Writer was the Author of A Letter from Oxon, dat. 17. Apr. 1648. which letter is the second part of Pegasus, or the flying horse from Oxon, bringing the proceedings of the Visitours and other Bedlamites there, by the command of the Earl of Montgomery. The slanders, as Dr. Harris calls them, were Non-residency. exchange of Churches and Pluralities, as also the guilt of Covetousness, which he used to preach against. The Pluralities were, as the Author of the letter tells us, Hanwell worth 160 l. per an. Hanborough in Oxfordsh. towards 300 l. Beriton and Petersfield in Hampshire not above 500 l. or 600 l. more, besides 4 shill. a day for the Assembly Membership, and 10 shillings for Apostleship in Oxon. But the Reader must know, that he lost Hanwell in 1643 when he retired to London and was made one of the Ass. of Divines, and did not keep all the rest together, yet whether he was restored to Hanwell when the War ceased in 1646, I cannot justly tell. He departed this mortal life in Trin. Coll. on the eleventh of Decemb. late in the night, in sixteen hundred fifty and eight,1658. aged 80 years, and was buried at the upper end of the Chappel of that College. Over his grave was a fair monument set up in the Wall, with an inscription thereon, wherein he is said to have been per decennium hujus collegii Praeses aeternùm celebrandus. Perspicatissimus indolum scrutator, potestatis Arbiter mitissimus, merentium fautor integerrimus, &c. The rest you may see in Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon, lib. 2. p. 301. b.