John Harris (c. 1666 – 7 September 1719) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

writer, scientist, and

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

priest. He is best known as the editor of the '' Lexicon Technicum: Or, A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences'' (1704), the earliest of English encyclopaedias; as the compiler of the Collection Collection of voyages and travels, published under his name; and as the author of an unfinished

county history English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or " chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: m ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Life

Harris was born about 1666, probably in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, and was a scholar of

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

, from 1684 to 1688. He was presented to the vicarage of

Icklesham Icklesham is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located about six miles (10 km) east of Hastings, on the main A259 Hastings to Rye road. The surrounding countryside is a made up of fi ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

, and subsequently to the rectory of St Thomas,

Winchelsea Winchelsea () is a small town in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The ...

. In 1696 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

and published a paper in the Society's ''

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'' on microscope observations of animalculaLarry Stewart, ‘Harris, John (c.1666–1719)’,

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 which included the very first description of a bdelloid rotifer. In 1698 he gave the seventh series of the

Boyle Lectures The Boyle Lectures are named after Robert Boyle, a prominent natural philosopher of the 17th century and son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Under the terms of his Will, Robert Boyle endowed a series of lectures or sermons (originally eight ...

,
Atheistical Objections against the Being of God and His Attributes fairly considered and fully refuted
'. Between 1702 and 1704 he delivered at the Marine Coffee House in Birchin Lane, London, the mathematical lectures founded by Sir Charles Cox, and advertised himself as a mathematical tutor at Amen Corner. The friendship of Sir William Cowper secured for him the office of private chaplain, a

prebend A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of t ...

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Medway, Rochester, Kent. The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church o ...

(1708), and the rectory of the united London parishes of St Mildred, Bread Street and St Margaret Moses, as well as other preferments. In politics he showed himself a Whig, and engaged in a bitter quarrel with the Rev. Charles Humphreys, who afterwards was chaplain to the High-Church Tory Henry Sacheverell. Harris for a time acted as vice-president of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. At his death, he was completing an elaborate ''History of Kent in Five Parts'' of which the first volume only was published, by D. Midwinter of St. Paul's Churchyard, London, in 1719. He is said to have died in poverty brought on by his own bad management of his affairs.

Works

References

External links

''Dictionary of Scientific Biography''
*Harris's 1697 book
''Remarks on some late papers relating to the universal deluge : and to the natural history of the earth,''
in the digital collection of the

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...

Description
of ''Remarks...'' (1697) from a catalog of a 1984 exhibition abou
Theories of the Earth 1644-1830
at the

(see bottom of page) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, John 1666 births 1719 deaths English book editors Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford English male non-fiction writers People from Winchelsea People from Icklesham