Gerbrand Harkes


Gerbrand Harkes was a Dutch Protestant who became a bookseller and dealer in manuscripts in England.

Life

Harks was born around 1510 in the Low Countries. He was an early convert to Calvinism and in 1538 fled to Protestant England, where he settled as a bookseller at Bulkeley Hall, since incorporated into Oriel College, Oxford. At the beginning of Edward VI's reign he purchased many libraries from the suppressed monasteries, some of which subsequently entered the Bodleian Library. As early as 1551 he regularly supplied books to Magdalen College. In addition to his bookselling business he also sold stationery, becoming official stationer to the University, and in 1546 was licensed to sell wine as well.
In 1556 Harkes's house was a meeting place for Protestants who, on account of the Marian Persecutions, worshipped in a cellar there.
In 1593, Harks was still alive, as he acquired five shops, two cellars, and two acres of meadow. His will, made on 5 August 1592, was proved on 3 May 1596.

Family

Harkes had a number of sons, some of whom carried on the bookselling business in the later years of the century.
Four members of the third generation of the same family are well known.
As late as the end of the seventeenth century the family name was often written Garbrand, alias Herks.