but left his office on making an early marriage. He was afterwards transferred to Messrs. Fletcher & Wright of Bloomsbury, and practised for himself in 1799. His practice was chiefly in the criminal courts, and the experience there gained made him a strong advocate of reform in criminal procedure. His evidence before the committee for the reformation of the criminal law was declared by Sir James Mackintosh to be unequalled in its effect. He exposed the delinquency of witnesses, and especially the mode of obtaining evidence against Holloway and Haggerty, who were executed in 1807 for the murder of Mr. Steele. He also took an active part in procuring the abolition of the blood-money system. He took much trouble in investigating cases where he considered that prisoners had been wrongly committed. He wrote pamphlets on behalf of Holloway and Haggerty in 1807, on the case of George Mathews in 1819, and in 1825 on behalf of Edward Harris.
In 1833 he was elected alderman of the ward of Farringdon Without, which he had represented since 1826 in the common council, and gave up his legal practice, which is said to have been worth 4,000l. a year. He was sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1834. He resigned his alderman's gown in 1840, when his election to the mayoralty was successfully opposed on the ground of his being proprietor of the 'Weekly Dispatch,' which then advocated very advanced religious and political views. Harmer took a leading part in establishing the Royal Free Hospital. He lived at Greenhithe, Kent, where he built a mansion, Ingress Abbey, chiefly of stone procured from old London Bridge on its demolition. He died on 12 June 1853 and was buried on the 16th in Kensal Green cemetery. He left a large fortune to his grand-daughter. There is an engraved portrait by Wivell (Evans, Catalogue, No. 16870).
[Illustrated London News, 25 June 1853, xxii. 507, copied by the Gentleman's Magazine, 1853, pt. ii. pp. 201-2; Times (advt. of death), 33 June 1853; Annual Register, 1819, v. 61, 359-63; Grant's History of the Newspaper Press, iii. 41-2.]
HARMER, THOMAS (1714–1788), independent minister, was born at Norwich probably in October 1714. He was educated for the ministry at the Fund Academy in Tenter Alley, Moorfields, under Thomas Bidgley, D.D., and John Eames [q. v.], who became divinity tutor in April 1734. In July 1734, before he was twenty, Harmer was elected pastor of the independent church at Wattisfield, Suffolk, and began his ministry there at Michaelmas. He was not ordained till 7 Oct. 1735, when he had attained his majority. His liberal temper, evangelical enterprise, and studious research gave him much influence in the dissenting churches of the eastern counties. In his exegetical works he supplied valuable illustrations of scripture from oriental customs. Throughout an industrious and unambitious life he enjoyed unbroken health; during fifty-four years he preached every Sunday. He died on Thursday, 27 Nov. 1788. His funeral sermon was preached by John Mead Ray of Sudbury. His successor was Habakkuk Crabb [q. v.]
He published: 1 . ' Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture . . . from . . . Books of Voyages and Travels,' &c., 1764, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1776, 8vo, 2 vols.; vols. iii. and iv. 1787, 8vo; 4th ed. (edited by Adam Clarke. LL.D. [q. v.]) 1808, 8vo, 4 vols.; 5th and best ed., 1816, 8vo, 4 vols. 2. 'Outlines of a new Commentary on Solomon's Song . . . by ... help of Instructions from the East,' &c., 1768, 8vo; 2nd edit., 1775, 8vo. 3. 'Some Account of the Jewish Doctrine of the Resurrection,' &c., 1771, 8vo; 2nd edit., 1789, 8vo. This last, with other publications, including 'Remarks on the Ancient and Present State of the Congregational Churches of Norfolk and Suffolk,' is reprinted in 4. 'Miscellaneous Works,' &c., 1823, 8vo, edited, with memoir, by William Youngman. His manuscript accounts of almost all the dissenting churches of Norfolk and Suffolk to 1774 have been utilised by John Browne (b. 6 Feb. 1823, d. 3 April 1886), the non-conformist historian of those counties.
[Youngman's Memoir, 1823; Norfolk Tour, 1829, ii. 13, 20; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norf. and Suff. 1877, pp. 199, 471 sq.]
HARNESS, Sir HENRY DRURY (1804–1883), general, colonel-commandant royal engineers, son of John Harness, esq., M.D., commissioner of the transport board, was born in 1804. William Harness [q. v.] was an elder brother. Harness passed high out of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1825, but had to wait two years for a commission. He employed the interval in study ing mining engineering among the silver mines of Mexico. On being gazetted a second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 24 May 1827, Harness returned to England and went through the usual course of study at Chatham. In 1828 he married Caroline, daughter of Thomas Edmonds of Cowbridge, Glamorganshire, and in 1829 went with his company to Bermuda. He was promoted lieutenant on 20 Sept. 1832, and on his return
