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.