HARRIS, John (d.1626), of the Inner Temple, London and Stockton, Salop.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

?2nd s. of John Harris (d.1570), coroner of Shropshire, of Stockton by Pernell, da. of John Wyn ap Reignold. educ. ?Shrewsbury; I. Temple c.1580, called 1590. m. 1589, Mary, da. of John French of Maidstone and the I. Temple, at least 3s. 8da.

Offices Held

Bencher, I. Temple 1603, Lent reader 1604, treasurer 1613-14.

Biography

Stockton lies only about four miles from the town of Montgomery, but Harris no doubt still needed the goodwill of the Herberts to assist his return there in 1601. Among the 12 burgesses who signed his election return were three Herberts and two Harrises, one of whom, William, had been bailiff of Montgomery in the previous year. In Parliament Harris made one recorded speech concerned with a legal aspect of merchants’ debts (3 Dec.), and he was a member of a committee on a private bill ‘touching assurance of certain manors etc. to Samuel Sandys and John Harries’ on 9 Dec. This may refer to lands in Montgomeryshire that were in dispute between John and Thomas Harris from 1599 to 1601. Harris also reported the progress of a committee about sheriffs on 8 Dec.

Harris’s will, dated 14 Jan. 1615, was proved 21 Jan. 1626. He requested burial in the Temple church, disinherited two of his sons, provided for his eldest daughter, and made his youngest son the principal beneficiary.

Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 223; London Mar. Lic. (Harl. Soc. xxv), 181; PCC 2 Hele, 26 Bakon, 37 Lyons; Mont. Recs. (Mont. Colls. supp.), 327, 480, 488; Townshend, Hist. Colls. 283; D’Ewes, 667, 670, 673.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: H.G.O.

Notes