father described himself as ‘Adam Halsnoth of Colchester, joyner, and now one of the Serjants att the Mace in the town of Colchester’ (registered in the archdeaconry court of Colchester). Adam was matriculated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1597, and took the degree of B.A. there in 1600–1. He afterwards removed to St. John's College, as a member of which he proceeded M.A. in 1604 and B.D. in 1612 (Cambridge Matriculation Register). In 1609 he became vicar of Hutton, Essex, on the resignation of his relative, Samuel Harsnett [q. v.] He was also rector of Cranham, Essex, to which he was instituted on the presentation of John, lord Petre, 8 Sept. 1612. He held both livings until his death at Cranham in 1639. His will, bearing date 30 Nov. 1638, was proved at London by his brother, Samuel Harsnett, grocer, on 16 Sept. 1639 (registered in P. C. C. 148, Harvey). He was twice married: first, to Mary, widow of William Jenkin, the puritan minister of Sudbury, Suffolk, and daughter of Richard Rogers, preacher at Wethersfield, Essex, by whom he had issue; and, secondly, to Mary, widow of John Dawson, who survived him.
Harsnett, who was a moderate puritan, wrote:
- ‘A Tovch-Stone of Grace. Discovering the differences betweene true and counterfeit grace: Laying downe infallible Evidences and markes of true Grace. Serving for the tryall of a mans spirituall estate,’ 12mo, London, 1630 (reissued in 1632 and 1635).
- ‘A Cordiall for the Afflicted. Touching the Necessitie and Utilitie of Afflictions. Proving unto us the happinesse of those that thankfully receive them: and the misery of all that want them, or profit not by them,’ the second edition enlarged, 12mo, London, 1638.
- ‘Gods Summons to a General Repentance,’ 12mo, London, 1640 (reprinted, 8vo, London, 1794).
[Trans. of Essex Archæol. Soc. (new ser.), ii. 256; Waters's Genealogical Gleanings in England, vol. i. pt. ii. pp. 210, 214, 224; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
HARSNETT, SAMUEL (1561–1631), archbishop of York, baptised in the parish of St. Botolph, Colchester, Essex, 20 June 1561, was the son of William and Agnes Harsnett. In his will dated 16 March, and proved 20 April 1574, his father describes himself as ‘William Halsenoth of St. Buttolphe, Colchester, baker,’ and desires to be buried in the churchyard of that parish (registered in the archdeaconry court of Colchester). Samuel was admitted a sizar of King's College, Cambridge, on 8 Sept. 1576 (Cambridge Matriculation Register). From King's he removed to Pembroke Hall, of which he became a scholar. In 1580–1 he proceeded B.A., was elected fellow of Pembroke on 27 Nov. 1583, and shortly afterwards received holy orders. He took his M.A. degree in 1584, and on 27 Oct. of that year preached a sermon in St. Paul's Cross, London, against the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. It is appended to ‘Three Sermons preached by … Dr. Richard Stuart, Dean of St. Paul's,’ &c., 12mo, London, 1656. He was consequently denounced as a papist. He was also, as he states, ‘checked by the Lord Archbishop Whitgift, and commanded to preach no more of it, and he never did, though now Dr. Abbot, late bishop of Sarum, hath since declared in print that which he then preached to be no Popery’ (Lords' Journals, 19 May 1624, iii. 389). Three years later, in March 1586–7, Harsnett was appointed master of the free school at Colchester, but in the autumn of 1588 abandoned the ‘painfull trade of teachyng’ in order to study divinity at Pembroke Hall. He then exerted himself, without success, to obtain the vacant mastership for one Mark Sadlington, fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1592 he was elected junior university proctor. In 1596 he supported Peter Baro [q. v.], the Lady Margaret professor of divinity, who had shown Arminian tendencies in his criticism of the Lambeth Articles, then lately promulgated. Harsnett, with John Overall, afterwards bishop of Norwich, and Lancelot Andrewes [q. v.], at that time master of Pembroke Hall, declined to condemn Baro's views (Strype, Life of Whitgift, 8vo ed. ii. 303). Meanwhile he had become chaplain to Richard Bancroft, then bishop of London, and on 14 June 1597 he received institution to the vicarage of Chigwell in Essex, and on 5 Aug. 1598 was installed prebendary of Mapesbury in St. Paul's Cathedral. In March 1597–8 he was on the commission which condemned John Darrel [q. v.] for pretending to exorcise devils. In vindication of these proceedings Harsnett wrote his famous treatise entitled ‘A Discovery of the Fravdvlent practises of Iohn Darrel, Bacheler of Artes …, detecting in some sort the deceitfull trade in these latter dayes of casting out Deuils,’ 4to, London, 1599. As chaplain to Bancroft Harsnett was licenser of books for the press. Towards the close of 1599 an old fellow-student at Pembroke Hall, Dr. (afterwards Sir) John Hayward [q. v.], with whom, however, Harsnett had not been intimate for ten or twelve years previously, delivered the manuscript of his ‘The First Part of the Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII’ to a friend connected with the Bishop of London's household, who begged Harsnett's official approbation of it
