HARRIS, Robert II (d.1605), of Reading, Berks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

Offices Held

Under-steward, Windsor to 1576; ‘secondary burgess’, Reading 1583, ‘capital burgess’ (i.e. alderman) 1588, steward 1589, mayor 1590-1, 1598-9.

Biography

Harris may have been a protégé of Sir Henry Neville I. Despite his being returned by his borough to three consecutive Parliaments, it is unlikely that he took any active part in the business of the House of Commons. The references in the journals to Mr. Harris are in all probability to Thomas Harris I before his promotion to serjeant. The Reading burgess’s name disappears from the local records after 1602; letters of administration were issued in the court of the archdeacon of Berkshire in 1605.

APC, xviii. 195; Reading Recs. i. 225, 369, 387, 400, 447, 467; ii. 1; Berks. Wills (Index Library viii), 81.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Roger Virgoe

Notes