Edmund Harman (c.1509–1577) was the

barber-surgeon The barber surgeon was one of the most common European medical practitioners of the Middle Ages, generally charged with caring for soldiers during and after battle. In this era, surgery was seldom conducted by physicians. Instead, barbers, who ...

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

and a member of his

Privy Chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

. 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 lankBerkley, lord Berkley, son and heir of the late lord Berkley, deceased; with all profits belonging to im''''

Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII ''Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII'' (full title: ''Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII: preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and elsewhere in England''; often abbreviated in citat ...

'', ed.

James Gairdner James Gairdner (22 March 1828 – 4 November 1912) was a British historian. He specialised in 15th-century and early Tudor history, and among other tasks edited the '' Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII'' series. Son of John Gairdne ...

, vol. X, no. 392 Harman became a prominent

Burford Burford () is a town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswold hills, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located west of Oxford and southeast of Chelt ...

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 Burford Priory is a Grade I listed country house and former priory at Burford in West Oxfordshire, England owned by Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert Murdoch, together with Matthew Freud. History Origin The house is on the site of a 13 ...

. Edmund Harman was buried at St John the Evangelist Church, Taynton, Oxfordshire. However, his lavishly carved monument is in the

Church of St John the Baptist, Burford The Anglican Church of St John the Baptist in Burford, Oxfordshire, England, is a Grade I listed building. The Church of England parish church is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, and is described by David Verey as "a complicated building wh ...

, Oxfordshire, a mile and a half away. There used to be an empty vault in front of the monument, which – together with the wording on the plaque – suggests that he intended to be buried there. The monument shows his nine sons and seven daughters, of whom only two girls survived their parents. The monument also features what may be the earliest depiction of Native Americans in Britain. Four South American Indians with feathered headdresses and a

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

surround his memorial plaque. No explanation is given in the Latin inscription for their presence, and it has been suggested that the family was involved in the early exploration and trade with the Americas. The American 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harman, Edmund 1577 deaths 16th-century English medical doctors Year of birth uncertain