Dr John Harris DD, Prebendary 1707/8-1713/4

The significant water damage throughout Textus and subsequent rebinding is due to its accidental submersion in either the River Thames or the River Medway around 1716 on its way to notable writer and prebendary of the Cathedral Dr John Harris for use in writing his History of Kent. Extract from The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2005-2006.

John Harris was presented by the Queen to the 5th Prebend in the cathedral on 28th January 1707/08. He was instituted by the bishop, Thomas Spratt, on 2nd February and installed four days later.' At this time the dean was Samuel Pratt, who was also Clerk of the Closet and a canon of Windsor. The archdeacon, Thomas Spratt, was the bishop's son and he also held the 6th Prebend. What palmy days they were for well placed clerics. Edmund Barrell was canon of the 1st Prebend, John Gilman the 2nd, John Grant the 3rd and Daniel Hill the 4th.? Of these people Samuel Pratt alone enjoys a notice in the Dictionary of National Biography.

John Harris, born 1666, a son of Edmund Harris, a City merchant, matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, aged seventeen, on 13th July 1683. Nothing is known of his previous education. Electing to take orders, one could hardly say it was a calling, Harris became vicar of Ichlesham, Sussex, in 1689. On the 7th September 1690, on the special instruction of the bishop of Chichester, Patrick Simon, one of the four founders of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and later bishop of Ely, Harris was presented to the neighbouring benefice of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Winchelsea. It is worthy of note that the dedication of Winchelsea church was overlooked by the Commissioners in the sixteenth century.

Harris was fortunate to attract the patronage of the first Earl Cowper (d.1723), the distinguished lawyer, who became the first Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. It was through Lord Cowper's patronage that Harris was preferred to a prebend at Rochester. At the same time Lord Cowper presented Harris to the united livings of St. Mildred's Bread Street and St. Margaret Moses in the City of London. In case this was not sufficient to support him Harris was also perpetual curate of Strood. On 29th August 1711 he also became rector of East Barming, a living still in the gift of the Lord Chancellor.' Harris was particularly interested in scientific matters and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 29th April 1696.* From 1706 he was a member of the Society's council and became secretary for one year in November 1709.3 For ever seeking and imparting knowledge Harris became a BD in the University of Cambridge in 1699 and a Lambeth DD on 10th July 1706.

Before the turn of the century Dr. Harris was giving free public lectures on mathematics at the Marine Coffee House, Birchin Lane in the City. But Dr. Harris's most worthwhile endeavour was the preparation in 1704 of Lexicon Technicum, or the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. From this work all subsequent cyclopedias trace their origin. In 1712 Dr. Harris turned from science to history and began to collect material for a projected History of Kent.

Water damage in Textus Roffensis

Amongst the manuscripts Harris consulted was the Textus Roffensis. As he was more frequently resident in London than at any of his numerous ecclesiastical residences, the precious volume was sent by wherry. All went well on the outward journey but not on the return. On this voyage the wherry encountered such rough weather that the Textus was submerged off Gravesend for some hours. There was little damage but stains remain to this day.'

Folios 169v-171r with example of the water staining present throughout Textus. Thankfully, the principal black ink has been little affected.

The account of the accident survives was written at least eight decades after the event. It is recorded by Edward Hasted in the fourth volume of his work The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, originally published in 1798.  The account reads:

Dr. Harris, having borrowed it for the use of his intended history of this county, sent it up to London by water, and the vessel being by the badness of the weather overset, this [manuscript] lay for some hours under water before it was discovered, which has somewhat damaged it.

It may at first reading seem somewhat dubious that the manuscript remained for some hours under water.  However, though this may be an exaggeration, it is clear that the binding may have afforded the manuscript some protection, especially if it incorporated a metal clasp (as the present binding does) which would have held the leaves tightly together.

Folio 111r shows some of the most severe water damage. The green ink used for illuminated initials is affected more than the red and black.

Dr Harris’s notes in Textus Roffensis

Notes from Dr Harris appear on several inserted vellum leaves at the opening of the manuscript, which must have been bound together with Textus when it was rebound in its current Russian leather in 1718, most likely as a result of damage to its (presumably) fourteenth century covers (see Bishop Hamo of Hythe (c.1275-1352). These notes have preserved the inscriptions that once featured on the now lost wooden cover. An inscription at the top of the first folio begining ‘AS’ and including ‘Roffensis’ is largely illegible. A second inscription has been scratched from the page. The largest inscription is probably by Dr Harris in 1719.

Textus de ecclesia Roffensis per

Ernulfum episcopum

Text of the Church of Rochester by means of

Bishop Ernulf.

Below this, an English inscription is almost certainly by Dr Harris:

This volume was collected by Ernulf

Bishop of Rochester and by him

entitled Textus de Ecclesia Roffensis

Ernulf was indeed consecrated as bishop of Rochester in 1115, on 26th December, to be precise.  He served till his death on 15th March 1124.  He was thus the serving bishop when the Textus Roffensis was compiled, most likely under his supervision, around 1123.  The same inscription as that on the title page ‘Textus de ecclesia Roffensis per Ernulfum episcopum’ is found in a fourteenth-century hand at the bottom of folio 1r.

A further inscription at the bottom of this folio is largely illegible. A small note of ‘Saxon characters’ is found on the reverse of the folio, a faint inscription ‘m’ modo / n’ nisi’, along with two characters a and b.

The second blank folio features a fragment of a pastedown with an inscription by Dean Balcanquel recording the loss of Textus in 1633 for two years before its recovery through the chancery court (read more in The Textus Roffensis in Chancery A.D. 1633 by A. A. Arnold. Although now partly illegible, it was transcribed onto the following folio at a later date by Dr Harris:

Transcription

Venerandum hoc anti-

quitatis monumention per

integrum biennium deside-

ratum sumptere tandem detecto,

restitutionem strenui negante

decreto supremae Curiae quam

Cancellariam vocant; non exeguis huju Ecclesiae

sumptibus recuperavit reddit pristinis

Dominis curavit Giradterus Balcanqual hujus Ecclesiae decanis

Decimas Anno post Natum incarnatum 1633.

Translation

This venerable monument of antiquity, desired to be taken for two whole years, was at last discovered, by the vigorous denial of its restoration by the decree of the Supreme Court, which they call the Chancellery; He recovered the expenses of this Church, and returned it to the former Lords.

Dr Harris notes in English:

Nota Bene This is written in the wooden

cover of this book thence copied

by John Harris. Doctor of Divinity Prebendary [of] Rochester

One final inscription from Dr Harris is to be found, on the reverse of the final inserted folio, adjacent to (although predating Elizabeth Elstob’s list of ‘Saxon Characters’. A list of numeral characters accompanied by a comment in English:

Numeral
Characters
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
This shews these
Arabick Characters
to have been used here
about the year
1115. [?]
Ernulfus was con-
secrated.

Harris in later years

Hasted’s history has never been an admired work so it is perhaps fortunate that only one volume was completed. This appeared shortly after Dr. Harris's death. Although not consulted for its text, there are numerous references in other publications to the work's manifold errors, the plates, some of which were engraved by Dr. Harris himself, reward close inspection. One of the finest of these is the Kip's view of Leeds Abbey, seat of the Merediths, which shows the house, demolished in 1796, built on the site and incorporating parts of the Augustinian priory.

Dr. Harris never learnt to live within his income and when he died on 7th September 1719 he was an absolute pauper. He is buried in Norton church and his funeral was paid for by his friend and benefactor John Godfrey. Godfrey carefully kept all of Dr. Harris's papers but when he died they were dispersed.

On the death of Dr. Harris the "exclusive and perpetual reservation" by the Crown made on 14th January 1713/14 that at the next vacancy the st Prebend be reserved to the Provostship of Oriel College, Oxford, became operative. The first holder under this arrangement was Dr. George Carter.

Seven provosts of Oriel held the stall until 40 & 41 Victoria (1876/77) when it was separated from the provostship and annexed to the Oriel Professorship of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture

David A. H. Cleggett
Edited with additional notes from Dr Christopher Monk and Jacob Scott

Notes

DRc/Arb 2 ff. 132-5, DRb/Am 1 £ 90v.

Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857, Neve, John Le, compiled by Joyce M.

Horn, vol.IlI, Canterbury, Rochester, and Winchester Dioceses, University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 1974, pp.50-70.

Dictionary of national Biography (DNB).

History of the Royal Society, Thomson, Appendix p.xxix.

DNB.

Gentleman's Magazine, vol. CCXVI, p.636.

Rochester Cathedral Library, Revd. Canon Dr. W. H., sometime Canon Librarian of this cathedral, 1963, p. 19.

Fasti, pp.68,69.

A portion of Thomas Badeslade's drawing of Rochester, which featured in Thorpe's 'History of Kent'. The castle appears rather out of scale.