James Harris (grammarian)

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For the American linguist, see James W. Harris.

James Harris (Circle of Arthur Pond)
James Harris, portrait attributed to Frances Reynolds, c. 1777

James Harris, FRS (24 July 1709 – 22 December 1780) was an English politician and grammarian. He was the author of Hermes, a philosophical inquiry concerning universal grammar (1751).

Life

James Harris was born at

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury.[1] He was educated at the Salisbury Cathedral School, and Wadham College, Oxford. On leaving university he was entered at Lincoln's Inn as a student of law, though he was not intended for the Bar. The death of his father in 1733 brought him an independent fortune and Malmesbury House in Salisbury's Cathedral Close.[2]

Malmesbury House, home of James Harris in Salisbury's Cathedral Close, today

Harris became a county magistrate. He was Member of Parliament for

lord of the treasury. He retired from his post with Grenville in 1765.[2]

Harris was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1763.[3] He died at Malmesbury House on 22 December 1780, and was buried on 28 December in Salisbury Cathedral, where there is a memorial to him in the north transept.[1]

Associations

Harris was a lover of music and a friend of

Handel. He directed concerts and music festivals at Salisbury for nearly fifty years. He adapted the words for a selection from Italian and German composers (subsequently published by the cathedral organist Joseph Corfe).[4] He wrote a number of pastorals. One of them, Damon and Amaryllis was produced by David Garrick at Drury Lane, as debut piece for the singer Thomas Norris. Norris was originally a Salisbury chorister, and a protégé of Harris.[5] In 1741 John Robartes, 4th Earl of Radnor gave him the collection of Handel's music made by Elizabeth Legh (1694–1734).[6]

One correspondent of Harris was

Lord Monboddo, who disclosed in a 1772 letter to him some early evolutionary thought.[7] Samuel Johnson found Harris uncongenial, saying he was "a sound, solid scholar," but "a prig" and "a coxcomb" who "did not understand his own system" in Harris's work Hermes.[2]

The music historian Charles Burney, on the other hand, esteemed him as a writer on music. Harris, his wife and daughter attended a high-powered domestic concert at Burney's house in May 1775, of which a vivid description by the 22-year-old Frances (Fanny) Burney survives: "I had the satisfaction to sit next to Mr. Harris, who is very chearful [sic] and communicative, and his conversation instructive and agreeable." His daughter Louisa ("a modest, reserved, and sensible girl") was asked to sing, and Harris accompanied her.[8]

Works

Interested in the Greek and Latin classics, Harris sought out manuscripts and printed editions that influenced his writings, as did the works of the

prescriptive grammar, it influenced Robert Lowth's English grammar of 1762.[9]

Harris also published Philosophical Arrangements and Philological Inquiries. His works were collected and published in 1801, by his son James who prefixed a brief biography.[4]

Hampshire Record Office holds Harris's papers.[10] Letters from his wife Elizabeth are also extant.[11]

Family

Harris married Elizabeth, daughter of John Clarke of Sandford, Somerset, in 1745. They had two sons and three daughters.[12] James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, the diplomat, was his elder son.[13]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12393. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ a b c Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). "Harris, James (1709–1780)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ^ "Fellows details". Royal Society. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  4. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Harris, James". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–20.
  5. ISBN 9780838637180
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-107-66640-5
    .
  7. ISBN 1-85506-207-0
  8. ^ The Early Diary of Frances Burney, 1768-1778, edited by Annie Raine Ellis, Vol. II, pp. 56-60 (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., [1889] 1913).
  9. ISBN 9780877790327
    .
  10. ^ Designation Statement on the Significance of Hampshire's Archive Collections
  11. ISBN 9780198166542
    .
  12. ^ "Harris, James (1709-80), of Salisbury, Wilts. History of Parliament Online". historyofparliamentonline.org.
  13. ^ "Harris, James (1746-1820), of Salisbury, Wilts. History of Parliament Online". historyofparliamentonline.org.

Further reading

  • Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill, Music and Theatre in Handel's World: The Family Papers of James Harris 1732–1780, Oxford University Press, US, 2002
  • Clive T. Probyn, The Sociable Humanist: The Life and Works of James Harris, 1709–1780, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991
  • The Works of James Harris, Esq. 2 vols, London: F. Wingrave, 1801 (facsimile ed., Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2003)

External links

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Member of Parliament for Christchurch
1761 – 1781
With: Hon. Thomas Robinson 1761–1770
James Harris (junior) 1770–1774
Thomas Villiers Hyde 1774–1780
Sir James Harris
from 1780 		Succeeded by
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