THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
299
Anthony Bacon relinquished possession in 1773, when it was conveyed
to Sir John Ayloff, who, in the following year, re-conveyed the estate to
John Biggin and his wife. In December, 1785, it was put up to auction
and purchased by William Hornby, Governor of Bombay, who sold it
in 1790 to John Harman.
John Harman, the purchaser of the estate, was the eldest son of
Jeremiah Harman and Hannah Gurnell, his wife, and was born at Ealing
on September 10th, 1738. He was a partner in the firm of Gurnell, Hoare
and Harman, Bankers to the Russian Court.
John Harman married, at Bristol, October 20th, 1760, Elizabeth, eldest
daughter of Freeman Harford, and she died in this house on May 12th,
1821, aged 79, and was buried a week later in the Friends' Burial Ground,
Hammersmith. Perhaps John Harman's acquisition of "Highams"
was connected with a legacy of £13,562 18s.—bequeathed to him the
preceding year (1789) by General John Fitzwilliam, who, in his Will,
says : "I take this opportunity of acknowledging the civilities I owe
"to him, to old Mr. Gurnell and all his family."
When John Harman bought the property he determined to improve
the grounds, and for this purpose he enlisted the services of the noted
landscape gardener, Humphrey Repton, who submitted his ideas in
a book, now in the possession of Sir Courtenay Warner, illustrated with
sketches, and called the "Red Book of Woodford." The first sketch
in the book shows the house as it was viewed from the grounds, "with
"the kitchen garden on the one side and the naked village on the other."
That the former ought to be removed and the latter planted out are
"such obvious improvements," writes Repton, "that I do not take
"upon myself the merit of suggesting them."
The second sketch shows "the appearance if these ideas were carried
"out." Further improvements proposed were the planting and turfing
of a ploughed field and the floating of the bottom of the lawn with water.
John Harman built the summer house on the lake in Highams Park,
the stones coming from old London Bridge, and also raised in the park
a curious pile made of stones from Waltham Abbey.
On July 29th, 1817, John Harman died at "Highams," aged 78,
and was buried with his wife in the Friends' Burial Ground, Hammersmith,
on August 6th following.
Jeremiah Harman, his eldest son, succeeded to the property on his
father's death in 1817. He was born in the parish of St. Lawrence
Jewry. London, on August 19th, 1763, and married in the Friends'
Meeting House, Gracechurch Street, on March 29th, 1786, Mary, daughter
of Thomas and Mary Howard, of London. She died at Tottenham on
May 18th, 1851, aged 86, and was buried in Woodford churchyard.
Jeremiah was chief forester or master keeper of East or Chappie Hainault
Walk in the Forest in 1814, and in 1821 he purchased the Forestal rights
of the Crown in the wastes of his manor for £1,232. He was a well-known
fine art connoisseur, and made a collection of pictures reputed to be by
the old masters, chiefly of the Dutch school, but, I believe, that after his
death these were found to be mostly copies and practically worthless.
He was the friend and patron of several artists, particularly Sir Charles
Eastlake, whom he assisted greatly in his early artistic struggles, and