Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/24

  intimacy, asked him to dinner, and to bring with him Shadwell the poet, and represented him as associated with young blades in ‘all the roguish (?) things of the world,’ 30 May 1668. A portrait of Harris in his habit of Henry V, ‘mighty like a player’ but only ‘pretty well’ in other respects, was executed by Hayls, and was seen by Pepys on 5 Aug. 1668. An engraving of Harris, executed by Harding from an original picture in the collection of the Earl of Orford at Strawberry Hill, is given in Waldron's ‘Shakespearean Miscellany,’ 1802, with a biography of Harris compiled from Downes.



HARRIS, JOSEPH (fl. 1661–1699), actor and dramatist, joined the king's company of players at the Theatre Royal. He and three others are said by Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 2) to have been bred up from boys under the master actors. The ‘History of the Stage,’ ascribed to Betterton, says ‘Mr. Harris was bred a seal-cutter,’ words which suggest a near relationship with (d. 1704?) [q. v.], chief engraver to the mint. So late as 1690 Harris played Colonel Downright in ‘Widow Ranter,’ by Mrs. Behn. He obtained little reputation in his profession, and on the accession of Queen Anne was appointed engraver to the mint. Giles Jacob says by the assistance of his friends he arrived at being an author (Lives and Characters, i. 129), and assigns him two plays: To these works the ‘Biographia Dramatica’ adds (3) ‘Love's a Lottery and a Woman the Prize,’ 4to, 1699, to which is annexed (4) a masque, ‘Love and Riches Reconcil'd,’ both performed in 1699 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The plot of the former, according to Genest (ii. 171), is ‘improbable, but some parts of the dialogue are not bad.’ The masque is unmentioned in Genest. 
 * 1) ‘The Mistakes, or the False Report,’ a tragi-comedy, 4to, 1691, acted at the Theatre Royal in 1690 by a company including Mountfort and Mrs. Bracegirdle. This is a poor piece as regards plot and language, which according to Jacob was composed by another person and consigned to Harris, who spoiled it.
 * 2) ‘The City Bride, or the Merry Cuckold,’ 4to, 1696. This comedy, taken without acknowledgment from Webster's ‘Cure for a Cuckold,’ failed on the first representation.

HARRIS, JOSEPH (1702–1764), assay master of the mint, eldest son of Howel and Susanna Harris of Trevecca in the parish of Talgarth in Breconshire, was born in 1702. He is said to have been originally a working blacksmith at his native place, but to have removed at an early age to London, where he soon made his mark as a writer on scientific subjects. He was the author of several papers relating to astronomy and magnetic observations in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ between 1728 and 1740. His other works appear to have been published anonymously, except that on ‘Optics,’ which appeared in 1775 after his death, and was intended to form part of an exhaustive treatise. His essay on money (1756) and coins is still valuable. MacCulloch calls it ‘one of the best works ever published on the subject.’ In ‘Murray's Magazine’ for May 1887 it is described as ‘a careful and singularly advanced essay, which proves him to have been a rigid monometallist, as it contains the expression of an opinion that only one metal can be money, a standard measure of property and commerce in any country.’ This essay is also specially referred to by Lord Liverpool in his celebrated letter to George III, dated 7 May 1805, upon the advantages of gold as the single measure of value. Harris probably held some subordinate post in the mint before his appointment as assay master in 1748. He died in the Tower of London on 26 Sept. 1764, and was buried there. On his monument in Talgarth Church it is said that ‘he invented many mathematical instruments,’ and that his political talents were well known to the ministers of the day, to whom he freely communicated many ‘wise and learned ideas.’ He married one of the daughters and heiresses of Thomas Jones of Tredustan. Harris was not, as has been said, warden of the mint or fellow of the Royal Society.

Harris's works are:
 * 1) ‘A Treatise on Navigation, containing the Theory of Navigation demonstrated, Nautical Problems, Astronomical Problems, Practical Navigation. To which is prefixed a treatise of Plane Trigonometry,’ London, 1730, 4to.
 * 2) ‘The Description and Uses of the Celestial and Terrestrial Globe and the Orrery,’ a revised edition of a work of 's (1667–1719) [q. v.], 3rd ed. London, 1734; 7th, London, 1757–8; 9th, London, 1763; 10th, London, 1768, 8vo.
 * 3) ‘An Essay on Money and Coins,’ 2 pts., 1756, 8vo, 1758, 8vo.
 * 4) ‘A Treatise of Optics,’