HARMER, JOHN REGINALD: Church of Eng land bishop of Rochester; b. at Maisemore (2 m. n.w. of Gloucester), Gloucestershire, Aug. 11, 1857. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1881; M.A., 1883), where he was fellow from 1883 to 1889, while from 1890 to 1899 he was fellow of Corpus Christi College in the same university, being also dean from 1892 to 1895. He was ordered deacon in 1881, and ordained priest two years later, and was domestic chaplain to Bishop Lightfoot of Durham in 1884-89, and examining chaplain to Bishop Westcott of the same diocese in 1889-95. He was vice-principal of the Cambridge Clergy Training School from 1889 to 1893. In 1895 he was consecrated bishop of Adelaide, South Austra lia, and ten years later was translated to the see of Rochester. He edited (London, 1890-93) eight volumes of the posthumous writings of Bishop Lightfoot, namely, five volumes of sermons, the abridged edition of the Apostolic Fathers, Biblical Essays, and Notes from Unpublished Commentaries.

HARMER, THOMAS: English Independent; b. in Norwich, probably in Oct., 1114; d. at Wattis field (21 m. n.n.w. of Ipswich), Suffolk, Nov. 27, 1788. He was prepared for the ministry by Thomas Ridgley and John Eames, at the Fund Academy, Moorfields, and was elected to the pastorate of the Independent church at Wattisfield in July, 1734. He led an industrious but unambitious life, preached every Sunday during fifty-four years, and exerted much influence in the dissenting churches of the eastern counties of England. His principal works are: Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture. . . Compiled from . . . Books of Voyages and Travels into the East (4 vols., London, 1764-87; 4th ed. by Adam Clarke, 4 vols., 1808); Outlines of a New Commentary on the Book of Solomon's Song (1768); and Some Account of the Jewish Doctrine of the Resurrection (1771). His Miscellaneous Works were edited, with a Memoir, by W. Youngman (1823), while his manuscript accounts of the dissenting churches of Norfolk and Suffolk were utilized by John Browne (q.v.) in his History of Congrega tionalism, and Memorials of the Churches in Norfolk and Suffolk (1877).

Bibliography: Besides the Memoir by Youngman, ut sup., and Browne, Hist. of Cowegationadiam, pp. 199, 471-472, ut sup., consult DNB, mv. 414.