Edmund Harman

Edmund Harman (c.1509–1577), was the barber-surgeon of Henry VIII of England and a member of his Privy Chamber.^[1] He served alongside Thomas Wendy and George Owen.

In February 1536, Harman was made bailiff of Hovington, and given the keeping of the manor-place and the farm thereto belonging, with fees of 5l. a year; during the minority of [blank] Berkley, lord Berkley, son and heir of the late lord Berkley, deceased; with all profits belonging to [him].^[2]

Harman became a prominent Burford resident in the 1540s, when he was one of the beneficiaries of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. He and his wife were granted Burford Priory.

Edmund Harman was buried at St John the Baptist, Church Green, Burford, Oxfordshire OX18 4RY. His lavishly carved tomb shows his 9 sons and 7 daughters. It also features what may be the earliest depiction of Native Americans in England. Four South American Indians with feathered headdresses surround his memorial plaque. It has been suggested that the family of his wife Agnes Harman were involved in the early exploration and trade with the Atlantic trade. The actual images on Edmund's memorial may have been copied from illustrations in a Flemish book that appeared a few years earlier.

External links

• , picture of Henry VIII and his attendants, Harman is 5th from the right

http://englishbuildings.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/burford-oxfordshire.html

References

1. ODNB, Edmund Harman
2. Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. James Gairdner, vol. X, no. 392