John Harman was born in 1653 to Robert and Judith Harman and married on 4th June 1678 to Ann who was born in Holborn, London. They were married in the parish of Capel in Surrey. One year after John and Ann's marriage tragedy struck with the death of John's father, Robert Harman. John's grandfather George was still alive and probably lived with John and Ann as well as his widowed mother Judith. John Harman alone must have been the breadwinner for the family.

John and Ann's first child was a girl christened Katherine. John had lost a sister by this name and it was probably for this reason he named his first-born girl after his baby sister who had died when he was just four years old. Katherine was baptised on 6th April 1681 and was followed by a son named again after his great grandfather and father John Harman. John was baptised on the 14th April 1683 at East Grinstead. John and Ann then had a son George in 1686 followed in 1688 by a girl named Ann after her mother. They were followed by Jane in 1689, then Mary 1693 and lastly Thomas in 1695.

Mary died soon after birth and was buried eight days after on the12th December 1693. The youngest son of the family Thomas was to die at the age of 11 months old in 1697. Both children were lost in the depth of winter and around Christmas time. So John and wife Anne were left with five children Katherine aged 16, John aged 14, Anne aged 13, George aged 10 and Jane aged 8.

John Harman's mother Judith Harman lived with her son John and daughter in-law Anne after the death of her husband Robert for twenty-nine years. Judith Harman died at the age of approximately of eighty-two and was buried at East Grinstead on the 12th March 1704. Like her husband Robert she was buried in a paupers grave.

It was hard times for the family as they were to lose another child. Jane like many daughters eventually went into service. It is highly likely that Jane needed to go to work at an early age possibly at the tender age of 12 or 13 years as a maid in one of the houses in the area. Life would have been hard and harsh for Jane in her position as a maid and she became stricken with disease and died at the age of sixteen. Jane was buried and as described in the parish records at East Grinstead as a poor maid on the 24th March 1705.

John Harman was to die in December 1729 at East Grinstead. There are no surviving records of Anne Harman's death.