BoAr: Bourne People: Marrat’s Harwood

http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo3Marrat’sHarwood.htm                   Latest edit 5 May 2008

Web page © R.J.PENHEY 2007

The Bourne Archive.

Marrat’s Biographies: Sir Edward Harwood.

From the Bourne entry in volume III of William Marrat’s History of Lincolnshire.

The copy used here was lent by the Willoughby Memorial Library, to the trustees of which I offer my thanks.

Transcript (p. 108)

Sir Edw. Harwood, born nigh Bourn1, was a valiant souldier2 and a Pious Man3. His having killed a Man in private Quarrel put a period to all his carnal Mirth. No possible provocations could afterwards tempt him to a Duell; he refused all Challenges with more Honour than others accepted them, it being well known that he would set his foot as far in the Nose of his Enemy as any Man alive. He was one of the 4 standing Colonels in the Low Countreys, and was shot at the Siege of Mastricht 16324 (Fuller) 5

RJP’s Footnotes

1.        In Thurlby by Bourne c.1586 (DNB).

2.        He was an officer in the English army but most of his soldiering was done in the service of the Dutch Republic.

3.        His religion was of the sort which came to be associated with the Parliamentarian side in the subsequent Civil War.

4.        Maastricht was besieged more than once. For example, it happened in 1579, before Sir Edward was born and again in 1673, after he had died. The siege of 1632 arose during the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule (1568-1648). With French, Welsh, English and Scottish support, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange Nassau took the town from Spanish Habsburg forces under Don Gonzalez de Córdoba. An account in Dutch and a brief account in English.

5.        Thomas Fuller, born in Northamptonshire in 1608, wrote his Worthies of England in the last twenty years of his life and his son published it in 1662. (Chambers)

For further information, see The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online) (DNB Sir Edward Harwood).

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