General Sir Henry Drury HARNESS (1804–1883)
For details of General Sir Henry Harness's military career,
see his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and here in Wikipedia.
This page concentrates on his family life and his connection with Headington
Henry Drury Harness was born at Harrow, Middlesex on 29 April 1804.
In 1827 he entered the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant, and on 18 July 1828 in Cowbridge, Glamorgan he married Caroline Susanna Edmondes, the daughter of Thomas Edmondes of Old Hall, Cowbridge, and they had the following children:
- Mary Charlotte Harness (born at St George's, Bermuda on 16 May 1829)
- Caroline Margaret Harness, known as “Coe” (born in Bermuda in 1830)
- William Edmondes Harness (born at Cowbridge, Glamorganshire in on 24 May 1835 and baptised there on 3 June)
- Arthur Harness (born in Woolwich, London on 2 June 1838 and baptised at St Pancras Old Church on 21 July).
His wife Caroline Susanna Harness died on 11 June 1838, just nine days after the birth of her youngest child. There is a memorial to her in Holy Cross Church, Cowbridge.
The Harness family continued to visit Cowbridge, Glamorgan to see the Edmondes family, and it was on one such visit that his daughters Mary and Caroline met Hugo Daniel Harper, currently the Head Master of Cowbridge School, who had just been appointed head of Sherborne School. On 19 December 1850 at All Saints Church, Knightsbridge, Mary Charlotte Harness of 2 Hyde Park Terrace married Hugo Daniel Harper. Mary's father was now Deputy Master at the Royal Mint, and her uncle, the Revd William Harness, performed the ceremony. Her honeymoon was at Lynton in Devon.
At the time of the 1851 census Henry Drury Harness, a widower of 46, was now a Captain in the Royal Engineers and serving as Deputy Master of the Royal Mint. He was living at 7 Royal Mint, Tower Hamlets with his daughter Caroline (20) and three servants (a cook and two house servants). His son William (15) was boarding at Rugby School.
Sir Henry Drury Harness of the Royal Engineers during the 1857 Indian Uprising
with Colonel Henry Yule of the Bengal Engineers
Photograph held by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
At the time of the 1861 census Harness (56), who in 1855 had been promoted to Colonel in the Royal Engineers, was living at Brompton Barracks in Gillingham, Kent with his daughter Caroline (30) and his niece Mary Elizabeth Edmondes (15) plus three servants (a cook, housemaid, and groom). The following year he was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
The 1871 census shows Harness (66) living at Hill Side House, Worting near Basingstoke with his son William (35) and two domestic servants. He was still there at the time of the 1881 census, aged 76 and described as a "General H.C.B.”, with his daughter Caroline (50) and two servants, and his grandson Henry Harper (22) was paying a visit.
His elder son William Edmondes Harness died at Worting on 20 July 1875. There is a memorial to him in Holy Cross Church, Cowbridge.
In 1877 Sir Henry was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and when he retired in October 1878 he was placed on the retired list as General. His surviving son Major-General Arthur Harness had Barton End built for him in Barton Road, Headington so that Sir Henry could live there in retirement with his unmarried daughter Caroline Mary Harness. The reason they chose Headington was probably so that they could be near Sir Henry's daughter Mary, whose husband Hugo Daniel Harper was now Principal of Jesus College, Oxford.
Barton End, Barton Road, Headington
General Sir Henry Drury Harness died at Barton End at the age of 78 on 10 February 1883. Even though the Home Secretary had already issued an ultimatum on burials in St Andrew's churchyard in Old Headington, which was overfull, space was found for him and he was buried there four days later. His grave marker at St Andrew's churchyard (below) has the following inscription on the three steps of the base:
GENERAL / SIR HENRY HARNESS / K.C.B.
COLONEL COMMANDANT / OF / THE ROYAL ENGINEERS
BORN 29TH APRIL 1804 / DIED AT BARTON END 10TH FEBRUARY 1883
His obituary was published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 17 February 1883:
His personal estate came to £763 19s., and his executor was his daughter Caroline Margaret Harness. Caroline must have moved out of Barton End almost immediately, as on 24 March 1883, just six weeks after her father's death, it was advertised as being to let unfurnished: it was described as “a large and well-built Country Residence, with large Garden, Tennis Ground, &c.”
Harness's three surviving children
Mary Charlotte Harness, Mrs Harper (born 1829) and her husband Hugo Daniel Harper settled in Sherborne in Dorset after their marriage, as her husband had been appointed Head Master of Sherborne School. Seven children were born to them there: Caroline Elizabeth Harper (1854), Mary Harper (1856/7), Henry Roby Harper (1858), Margaret Annie Harper (1860), Walter Hugo Harper (1863), William Jevon Harper (1864, died aged seventeen), and Arthur Harper (1866, died aged four). Mary and her husband can be seen living in Sherborne in the 1851, 1861, and 1871 censuses. Then in 1877 her husband was elected Principal of Jesus College, Oxford and they were living in the Principal's Lodgings at the time of the 1881 census. By 1891 her husband was Rector of Wootten in Berkshire as well as Principal of Jesus, and they were living in the Rectory there with their daughters Caroline Wollaston and Margaret Harper, their grandchildren Hugh Wollaston (9) and Margaret Wollaston (6), and seven servants (a governess, lady’s maid, cook, kitchenmaid, housemaid, butler, and groom). They had moved to Impington, Cambridge by 1895, and on 8 January that year her husband Hugo Daniel Harper died there at the age of 75. His funeral was at St Mary-the-Virgin Church, Oxford on 12 January followed by interment in his son’s vault in Holywell Cemetery. His effects came to £13,781 4s. 2d. At the time of the 1901 census Mary, a widow of 71, was living at Childe Court, Streatley, Berkshire with her unmarried daughter Margaret and three servants. Mary Charlotte Harper died at this address on 25 February 1908. Her effects came to £2044 17s. 3d. See the book by Mrs Ernest Stewart Roberts (formerly Mary Harper) about her family, Sherborne, Oxford, and Cambridge (London: Martin Hopkinson Ltd, 1934).
Caroline Margaret Harness (born in Bermuda in 1830) never married. She went to live with her brother Arthur at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich after her father's death in 1883, and died there four years later on 14 July 1887. Her personal estate came to £5,726 12s. 8d.
Arthur Harness (born 1838) never married. He followed his father into a military career, and in 1881 was a Major in the Royal Artillery based at the barracks in Nether Hallam, Yorkshire. In 1891 he was a Colonel in the Royal Artillery, living at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. In 1901, aged 62 and described as a retired Major General, he was living alone at 19 Montpelier Villas, Brighton with his housekeeper and cook. He was still there with two servants in 1911. He died at that address at the age of 89 on 13 October 1927. His effects came to £1142 0s. 1d.
