Part 2

“In the 16th year of K. Henry VII. John Ellam alienated it (the seat of Ellam) to Henry Harman, who was then Clerk of the Crown,[10] and {x} who likewise purchased an estate called Maystreet here, of Cowley and Bulbeck, of Bulbeck-street in this parish, in the 20th year of King Edward IV.[11] On his decease, William Harman, his son, possessed both these estates.[12] On his decease they descended to Thomas Harman, esq., his son; who, among others, procured his lands to be disgavelled, by the act of the 2 & 3 Edw. VI.[13] He married Millicent, one of the daughters of Nicholas Leigh, of Addington, in the county 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.

[Footnote 10: “John Harman, Esquyer, one of the gentilmen hushers of the Chambre of our soverayn Lady the Quene, and the excellent Lady Dame Dorothye Gwydott, widow, late of the town of Southampton, married Dec. 21, 1557.” (Extract from the register of the parish of Stratford Bow, given in p. 499, vol iii. of Lysons’s _Environs of London_.)]

[Footnote 11: Philipott, p. 108. Henry Harman bore for his arms—Argent, a chevron between 3 scalps sable.]

[Footnote 12: Of whose daughters, Mary married John, eldest son of Wm. Lovelace, of Hever in Kingsdown, in this county; and Elizabeth married John Lennard, Prothonotary, and afterwards _Custos Brevium_ of the Common Pleas. See Chevening.]

[Footnote 13: See Robinson’s Gavelkind, p. 300.]

[Footnote 14: She was of consanguinity to Abp. Chicheley. _Stemm. Chich._ No. 106. Thomas Harman had three daughters: Anne, who married Wm. Draper, of Erith, and lies buried there; Mary, who married Thomas Harrys; and Bridget, who was the wife of Henry Binneman. _Ibid._]

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). {xi}

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† iustlie to be referred either to the first or second sort of poore †afore mentioned†; 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 †the harts of† the goers by such places where they lie, to [19]‡yerne at‡ their miserie, and therevpon† 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 {xii} 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 [Sidenote: Thomas Harman.] common end to all of that profession. A gentleman, also, of 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§ 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* 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 glimmar, or fire. 2. Baudie Baskets. 3. Mortes. 4. Autem mortes. 5. Walking mortes. 6. Doxes. 7. Delles. 8. Kinching Mortes. 9. Kinching cooes.[27]

{xiii}

“The punishment that is ordeined for this kind of people is verie sharpe, and yet it can not restreine them from their gadding: wherefore the end must needs be martiall law, to be exercised vpon them as vpon theeues, robbers, despisers of all lawes, and enimies to the commonwealth _and_ welfare of the land. What notable roberies, pilferies, murders, rapes, and stealings of yoong[28] children, [29]††burning, breaking and disfiguring their lims to make them pitifull in the sight of the people,†† I need not to rehearse; but for their idle roging about the countrie, the law ordeineth this maner of correction. The roge being apprehended, committed to prison, and tried in the next assises (whether they be of gaole deliuerie or sessions of the peace) if he happen to be conuicted for a vagabond either by inquest of office, or the testimonie of two honest and credible witnesses vpon their oths, he is then immediatlie adiudged to be greeuouslie whipped and burned through the gristle of the right eare, with an hot iron of the compasse of an inch about, as a manifestation of his wicked life, and due punishment receiued for the same. And this iudgement is to be executed vpon him, except some honest person woorth fiue pounds in the queene’s books in goods, or twentie shillings in lands, or some rich housholder to be allowed by the iustices, will be bound in recognisance to reteine him in his seruice for one whole yeare. If he be taken the second time, and proued to haue forsaken his said seruice, he shall then be whipped againe, bored likewise through the other eare and set to seruice: from whence if he depart before a yeare be expired, and happen afterward to be attached againe, he is condemned to suffer paines of death as a fellon (except before excepted) without benefit of clergie or sanctuarie, as by the statute dooth appeare. Among roges and idle persons finallie, we find to be comprised all proctors that go vp and downe with counterfeit licences, coosiners, and such as gad about the countrie, vsing vnlawfull games, practisers of physiognomie, and palmestrie, tellers of fortunes, fensers, plaiers,[30] minstrels, jugglers, pedlers, tinkers, pretensed[31] schollers, shipmen, prisoners gathering for fees, and others, so oft as they be taken without sufficient licence. From [32]‡‡among which companie our bearewards are not excepted, and iust cause: for I haue read that they haue either voluntarilie, or for want of power to master their sauage beasts, beene occasion of the death and deuoration of manie children in sundrie countries by which they haue passed, whose parents neuer knew what was become of them. And for that cause there is _and_ haue beene manie sharpe lawes made for bearwards in Germanie, wherof you may read in other. But to our roges.‡‡ Each one also that harboreth or aideth them with meat or monie, is taxed and compelled to fine with the queene’s maiestie for euerie time that he dooth so succour them, as it {xiv} shall please the iustices of peace to assigne, so that the taxation exceed not twentie shillings, as I haue beene informed. And thus much of the poore, _and_ such prouision as is appointed for them within the realme of England.”

[Footnote 15: In the first edition of Holinshed (1577) this chapter is the 5th in Book III. of Harrison’s _Description_.]

[Footnote 16: †–† Not in ed. 1577.]

[Footnote 17: _thorow_ in ed. 1577.]

[Footnote 18: _piteous_ in ed. 1577.]

[Footnote 19: ‡–‡ _lament_ in ed. 1577.]

[Footnote 20: The remainder of this paragraph is not in ed. 1577.]

[Footnote 21: Not in ed. 1577.]

[Footnote 22: Compare _Harman_, p. 48.]

[Footnote 23: The 1577 ed. inserts _horrible_.]

[Footnote 24: The 1577 ed. reads _fifty_.]

[Footnote 25: §–§ The 1577 ed. reads 22, which is evidently an error.]

[Footnote 26: *–* For these words the 1577 ed. reads _gather_.]

[Footnote 27: The above list is taken from the titles of the chapters in Harman’s _Caueat_.]

[Footnote 28: Not in the 1577 ed.]

[Footnote 29: ††–†† These words are substituted for _which they disfigure to begg withal_ in the 1577 ed.]

[Footnote 30: The 1577 ed. inserts _bearwards_.]

[Footnote 31: Not in 1577 ed.]

[Footnote 32: ‡‡–‡‡ These three sentences are not in 1577 ed.]

Among the users of Harman’s book, the chief and coolest was the author of _The groundworke of Conny-catching_, 1592, who wrote a few introductory pages, and then quietly reprinted almost all Harman’s book with an ‘I leaue you now vnto those which by Maister Harman are discouered’ (p. 103, below). By this time Harman was no doubt dead.—Who will search for his Will in the Wills Office?—Though Samuel Rowlands was alive, he did not show up this early appropriator of Harman’s work as he did a later one. As a kind of Supplement to the _Caueat_, I have added, as the 4th tract in the present volume, such parts of the _Groundworke of Conny-catching_ as are not reprinted from Harman. The _Groundworke_ has been attributed to Robert Greene, but on no evidence (I believe) except Greene’s having written a book in three Parts on Conny-catching, 1591–2, and ‘A Disputation betweene a Hee Conny-catcher and a Shee Conny-catcher, whether a Theafe or a Whore is most hvrtfull in Cousonage to the Common-wealth,’ 1592.[33] Hearne’s copy of the _Groundworke_ is bound up in the 2nd vol. of Greene’s Works, among George III.’s books in the British Museum, as if it really was Greene’s.

Another pilferer from Harman was Thomas Dekker, in his _Belman of London_, 1608, of which three editions were published in the same year (_Hazlitt_). But Samuel Rowlands found him out and showed him up. From the fifth edition of the Belman, the earliest that our copier, Mr W. M. Wood, could find in the British Museum, he has drawn up the following account of the book:

_The Belman of London. Bringing to Light the most notorious Villanies that are now practiced in the Kingdome. Profitable for Gentlemen, Lawyers, Merchants, Citizens, Farmers, Masters of Housholds, and all sorts of Servants to mark, and delightfull for all Men to Reade._

Lege, Perlege, Relege.

_The fift Impression, with new additions. Printed at London by Miles Flesher._ 1640. {xv}

[Footnote 33: Hazlitt’s _Hand Book_, p. 241.]

On the back of the title-page, after the table of contents, the eleven following ‘secret villanies’ are described, severally, as

“Cheating Law. Vincent’s Law. Curbing Law. Lifting Law. Sacking Law. Bernard’s Lawe. The black Art. Prigging Law. High Law. Frigging Law. Five Iumpes at Leape-frog.”

After a short description of the four ages of the world, there is an account of a feast, at which were present all kinds of vagabonds. Dekker was conveyed, by ‘an old nimble-tong’d beldam, who seemed to haue the command of the place,’ to an upper loft, ‘where, vnseene, I might, through a wooden Latice that had prospect of the dining roome, both see and heare all that was to be done or spoken.’

‘The whole assembly being thus gathered together, one, amongest the rest, who tooke vpon him a Seniority ouer the rest, charged euery man to answer to his name, to see if the Iury were full:—the Bill by which hee meant to call them beeing a double Iug of ale (that had the spirit of _Aquavitæ_ in it, it smelt so strong), and that hee held in his hand. Another, standing by, with a toast, nutmeg, and ginger, ready to cry _Vous avez_ as they were cald, and all that were in the roome hauing single pots by the eares, which, like Pistols, were charged to goe off so soone as euer they heard their names. This Ceremony beeing set abroach, an Oyes was made. But he that was Rector Chory (the Captain of the Tatterdemalions) spying one to march vnder his Colours, that had neuer before serued in those lowsie warres, paused awhile (after hee had taken his first draught, to tast the dexterity of the liquor), and then began, Iustice-like, to examine this yonger brother vpon interrogatories.’

This yonger brother is afterwards ‘stalled to the rogue;’ and the ‘Rector Chory[34]’ instructs him in his duties, and tells him the names and degrees of the fraternity of vagabonds. Then comes the feast, after which, ‘one who tooke vpon him to be speaker to the whole house,’ began, as was the custom of their meeting, ‘to make an oration in praise of Beggery, and of those that professe the trade,’ which done, all the company departed, leaving the ‘old beldam’ and Dekker the only occupants of the room.

[Footnote 34: Leader of the Choir, Captain of the Company.]

‘The spirit of her owne mault walkt in her brain-pan, so that, what with the sweetnes of gaines which shee had gotten by her Marchant {xvi} Venturers, and what with the fumes of drinke, which set her tongue in going, I found her apt for talke; and, taking hold of this opportunity, after some intreaty to discouer to mee what these vpright men, rufflers and the rest were, with their seuerall qualities and manners of life, Thus shee began.’

And what she tells Dekker is taken, all of it, from Harman’s book.

Afterwards come accounts of the five ‘Laws’ and five jumps at leap-frog mentioned on the back of the title-page, and which is quoted above, p. xv.

Lastly ‘A short Discourse of Canting,’ which is, entirely, taken from Harman, pages 84–87, below.

As I have said before, Dekker was shown up for his pilferings from Harman by Samuel Rowlands, who must, says Mr Collier in his Bibliographical Catalogue, have published his _Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell_, in or before 1609,—though no edition is known to us before 1610,—because Dekker in an address ‘To my owne Nation’ in his _Lanthorne and Candle-light_, which was published in 1609, refers to Rowlands as a ‘Beadle of Bridewell.’ ‘You shall know him,’ (says Dekker, speaking of a rival author, [that is, Samuel Rowlands] whom he calls ‘a Usurper’) ‘by his Habiliments, for (by the furniture he weares) hee will bee taken for _a Beadle of Bridewell_.’ That this ‘Usurper’ was Rowlands, we know by the latter’s saying in _Martin Mark-all_, leaf E, i back, ‘although he (the Bel-man, that is, Dekker) is bold to call me an _vsurper_; for so he doth in his last round.’

Well, from this treatise of Rowlands’, Mr Wood has made the following extracts relating to Dekker and Harman, together with Rowlands’s own list of slang words not in Dekker or Harman, and ‘the errour in his [Dekker’s] words, and true englishing of the same:’

_Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell; his defence and Answere to the Belman of London, Discouering the long-concealed Originall and Regiment of Rogues, when they first began to take head, and how they haue succeeded one the other successiuely vnto the sixe and twentieth yeare of King Henry the eight, gathered out of the Chronicle of Crackeropes, and (as they terme it) the Legend of Lossels. By S[amuel] R[owlands]._ {xvii}

Orderunt peccare boni virtutis amore, Orderunt peccare mali formidine pœnæ.

London _Printed for Iohn Budge and Richard Bonian._ 1610.

‘Martin Mark-all, his Apologie to the Bel-man of London. There hath been of late dayes great paines taken on the part of the good old Bel-man of London, in discouering, as hee thinks, a new-found Nation and People. Let it be so for this time: hereupon much adoe was made in setting forth their liues, order of liuing, method of speech, and vsuall meetings, with diuers other things thereunto appertaining. These volumes and papers, now spread euerie where, so that euerie Iacke-boy now can say as well as the proudest of that fraternitie, “will you wapp for a wyn, or tranie for a make?” The gentle Company of Cursitours began now to stirre, and looke about them; and hauing gathered together a Conuocation of Canting Caterpillars, as wel in the North parts at the Diuels arse apeake,[35] as in the South, they diligently enquired, and straight search was made, whether any had reuolted from that faithles fellowship. Herupon euery one gaue his verdict: some supposed that it might be some one that, hauing ventured to farre beyond wit and good taking heede, was fallen into the hands of the Magistrate, and carried to the trayning Cheates, where, in shew of a penitent heart, and remoarse of his good time ill spent, turned the cocke, and let out all: others thought it might be some spie-knaue that, hauing little to doe, tooke vpon him the habite and forme of an Hermite; and so, by dayly commercing and discoursing, learned in time the mysterie and knowlege of this ignoble profession: and others, because it smelt of a study, deemed it to be some of their owne companie, that had been at some free-schoole, and belike, because hee would be handsome against a good time, tooke pen and inke, and wrote of that subiect; thus, _Tot homines, tot sententiæ_, so many men, so many mindes. And all because the spightfull Poet would not set too his name. At last vp starts an old Cacodemicall Academicke with his frize bonnet, and giues them al to know, that this invectiue was set foorth, made, and printed Fortie yeeres agoe. And being then called, ‘A caueat for Cursitors,’ is now newly printed, and termed, ‘The Bel-man of London,’ made at first by one Master Harman, a Iustice of Peace in Kent, in Queene Marie’s daies,—he being then about ten yeeres of age.’ Sign. A. 2.

[Footnote 35: Where at this day the Rogues of the North part, once euerie three yeeres, assemble in the night, because they will not be seene and espied; being a place, to those that know it, verie fit for that purpos,—it being hollow, and made spacious vnder ground; at first, by estimation, halfe a mile in compasse; but it hath such turnings and roundings in it, that a man may easily be lost if hee enter not with a guide.]

‘They (the vagabonds) haue a language among themselues, composed of _omnium gatherum_; a glimering whereof, one of late daies hath endeuoured to manifest, as farre as his Authour is pleased to be an {xviii} intelligencer. The substance whereof he leaueth for those that will dilate thereof; enough for him to haue the praise, other the paines, notwithstanding _Harman’s_ ghost continually clogging his conscience with _Sic Vos non Vobis_.’—Sign. C. 3 back.[36]

[Footnote 36: Of the above passages, Dekker speaks in the following manner:—“There is an Vsurper, that of late hath taken vpon him the name of the Belman; but being not able to maintaine that title, hee doth now call himselfe the Bel-mans brother; his ambition is (rather out of vaine-glory then the true courage of an experienced Souldier) to haue the leading of the Van; but it shall be honor good enough for him (if not too good) to come vp with the Rere. You shall know him by his Habiliments, for (by the furniture he weares) he will be taken for a _Beadle of Bridewell_. It is thought he is rather a Newter then a friend to the cause: and therefore the Bel-man doth here openly protest that hee comes into the field as no fellow in armes with him.”—_O per se O_ (1612 edit.), sign. A. 2.]