Walter Harris (1686-1761)

Life

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The Antient and Present State of the County of Down: containing a chorographical description, with the natural and civil history of the same. Illustrated by observations made on the baronies, parishes, towns, villages [... &c.] with a survey of the new canal; as also, a new and correct map of the county (Dublin: printed by A. Reilly, for Edward Exshaw, 1744), xx, 271, [21]pp., pl.,8o;

Fiction Unmasked: or An Answer to a Dialogue [...] published by a Popish Physitian, and pretended to have passed between a Dissenter, and a Member of the Church of Ireland: wherein the ... mischiefs of the Irish Rebellion and Massacres in 1641 are laid ... upon the Protestants. In which are ... interspersed some strictures on the Impartial Examiner published by the Reverend J. Jones ... In a dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist (Dublin: E. Bate 1752), viii. 211pp.

Hibernica, or, Some Antient Pieces Relating to Ireland, never hitherto made publick (No. VI excepted), 2 pts. in 1 vol. (Dublin 1747-50), fol. Pt. 1, with an essay on the defects in the histories of Ireland, and remedies proposed for the improvement thereof, ed Walter Harris; Pt. 2: with a preface by Walter Harris; or, Two treatises relating to Ireland, etc.) [Collected and edited by W. H.], 2 pts. (Dublin: E. Bate 1747; P. Wilson 1750), fol.; Do., Another edition [reiss. of Pt. I] (Dublin: W. Williamson, 1757), fol.; Do. [another edn.], [2 vols. in 1] (Dublin: Printed for John Milliken 1770), 8° [as infra].

Hibernica: Or, some Antient pieces relating to Ireland. Part I. Containing, I. The History of Ireland by Maurice Regan, Servant and Interpreter to Dermod Mac-Murrough, King of Leinster, translated from the Irish into French, and from thence into English by Sir George Carew, Lord President of Munster. To which are added, Notes to illustrate some dark Passages therein. II. The Story of King Richard II. his last being in Ireland, written by a French Gentleman, who accompanied the King in that Voyage, to his leaving Ireland in 1399; and translated into English by the said Sir George Carew. III. The Voyage of Sir Richard Edgecombe, sent by King Henry Vii. into Ireland in 1488 to take new Oaths of Allegiance from the Nobility and others, who had declared for (the then Pretender) Lambert Simnell. IV. A Breviate of the getting of Ireland, and of the Decaie of the same. Written by Patrick Finglass, first Chief Baron, and afterwards Chief Justice of Ireland in the Reign of King Henry Viii. V. A Project of King James I. for the Division and Plantation of the six escheated Counties of Ulsher with British and Scottish Undertakers, Servitors and Natives. VI. Orders and Conditions to be observed by the Undertakers, &c. of the said Plantation. Vii. A Commission of Inquiry in Order to the Establishment of the said Plantation. Viii. Instructions to the said Commissioners. IX. A Survey of the said six escheated Counties after the Settlement of the said Plantation, by Nicholas Pynnar, Esq. X. A Letter from Sir Thomas Philips to King Charles I. concerning the Defects of the Londoners in their Plantation. To which is added XI. An Essay on the Defects in the Histories of Ireland, and Remedies proposed for the Improvement thereof. In a Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Newport, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and President of the Physico-Historical Society established in Dublin, 2 vols. (Dublin: printed for John Milliken, (at No. 10) in Skinner-Row, M,DCC,LXX. [1770]. Note: Editor’s preface in each vol.; Vol. 1 is Part I, and Vol. 2 entitled Hibernica: part II. or, two treatises relating to Ireland [.. &c.]. (ESTC T154459.)

The History and Antiquities of Ireland: Illustrated with Cuts of Ancient Medals, Urns, &c [...] with The History of the Writers of Ireland ... written in Latin by Sir James Ware; newly translated into English, revised and improved ... and continued down to the beginning of the present century (Dublin: Printed for Robert Bell & John Fleming 1764); The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin, from the earliest accounts: compiled from authentick memoirs, offices of record, manuscript collections, and other unexceptionable vouchers by the late Walter Harris, Esq.; with an appendix, containing, an history of the cathedrals of Christ-Church and St. Patrick, the University, the hospitals and other public buildings. Also two plans, one of the city as it was in the year 1610, being the earliest extant; the other as it is at present, from the accurate survey of the late Mr.Rocque; with several other embellishments (London: Printed for J. Knox 1766), 509pp.

The History of the Life and Reign of William-Henry, Prince of Nassau and Orange ... King of England ... in which the Affairs of Ireland are more particularly handled, than in any other History; with an Appendix ... of ... original papers. Illustrated with plans of sieges and battles in Ireland ... As also two dissertations. I: “On the Government of Holland”; II: A ... History of the ... House of Orange” (Dublin: E. Bate 1749), xii, 502pp. xcii., fol.

Hiftoriographorum Aliorumque Scriptorum Hiberniæ Commentarium: or, A HISTORY of the Irifh WRITERS [1736]. Collected not only from the beft Books, and moft authentic Accounts we have in Print, but alfo from feveral curious Manufcripts and Archives in the moft eminent Libraries in Europe. [Epigraph:] Doctrina sed vim promovit insitam/Paulum sepultæ distat inertiæ/Celata Virtus. Hor[ace]. Dublin: Printed for and Sold by Ebenezer Rider in George’s-Lane 1736. Copy in Armagh Public Library presented by P. Shirley Esq., M.P.; ms annotated as ‘extremely scarce’ (Grenville Cat., I, 304), with ms note by William Reeves: ‘This little volume is neither more nor less than the English translation of Sir James Ware’s first book of the Writers of Ireland, traken from the [?Antiquity] and History of Ireland by Sir James Ware, pubd. in London for 1705. It was probably published by Walter Harris, who omits [the] 2nd Book which deals only with the authors who had any preferment in Ireland. It is not Harris’s translation for it appeared in 1705. But the Preface gives the idea that the object of the publisher was to suspire a little literary spirit into the natives of Ireland, by holding forth the example of distinguished writers who were born in this island.’ Wm. Reeves. [Book plate of Lough Fea; see Preface, infra.]

The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin, From the earliest accounts: Compiled from Authentick Memoirs, Offices of Record, Manuscript Collections, and other unexceptionable Vouchers. By the late Walter Harris, Esq. With an Appendix, Containing An History of the Cathedrals of Christ-Church and St. Patrick, the University, the Hospitals and other Public Buildings. Also two Plans, one of the City as it was in the Year 1610, being the earliest extant; the other as it is at Present, from the accurate Survey of the late Mr. Rocque; with several other embellishments. - permulta in urbe nostra, juxtaque urbem, non oculis modo, sed ne auribus quidem novimus; quae se tulisset Achaia, Aegyptos, Asia, aliave quaelibet miraculorum ferax commendatrixque terra, audita, perlecta, lustrata, haberemus. Plin. Ep. lib viii. Ep. ad Gallum. Ardua res est vetustis novitatem dare, obsoletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, dubiis fidem. (DUBLIN: Printed for Laurence Flinn, in Castle -street; and James Williams, in Skinner-row (London: J. Knox, 1766), ill. [John Rocque’s map of Dublin].

See digital edition of The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin From the earliest accounts: Compiled from Authentick Memoirs, Offices of Record, Manuscript Collections, and other unexceptionable Vouchers. By the late Walter Harris, Esq. (1766) - at “Dublin Chapters”, index - accessed 06.11.2011.

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Commentary

C. Litton Falkiner, Illustrations of Irish History and Topography (London: Longmans, Green 1904): ‘It is interesting to recall the fact, honourable alike to the author who designed and the legislature which encouraged a scheme of research much in front of its age, that Harris was endowed by the Irish Parliament in 1755 with a pension to aid and assist him in his historical researches. Moreover a petition from him praying assistance for a projected history of Ireland was approved by a committee of the House of Commons, which reported in favour of the publication of the materials he had accumulated, and was willing to devote a sum of 2,2601, to that object - perhaps the earliest instance in the Three Kingdoms of state endowment of historical research.’ (Preface, p.xi.)

Robert & Catherine Ward, Letters of Charles O’Conor (1988), cites The History of the Bishops of Ireland and Writers of Ireland, advertised by Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, 21 Oct.-4 Nov. 1749 Ward & Ward, p.66, n.3); this work is styled Bishops and Antiquities by O’Conor, who remarks, ‘I have compared [B&A] with the annals in my hands. Through the ignorance of our language, he has more mistakes than pages, many of which I marked in the margin from the original works I had before me. The ignorance of our language and the virulence of faction apart, he certainly had good talents for a compiler and I often wonder how well he has succeeded. Poor man! he was under the necessity (through poverty) of joining the hussar to the Swiss, of giving up his conscience to satiate the party lusts of patron [65] who could not be gained but by such sacrifice.’ (Letter to Curry, 31 March 1759, Letters, p.65-66).

Thomas Sheridan, The Life of Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patric[k] ’s Dublin, by Thomas Sheridan, MA (London 1734): ‘The learned Mr. Harris, in his Philological Enquiries, has the following passage: “Misanthropy is so dangerous a thing, and goes so far in sapping the very foundations of morality and religion, that I esteem the last part of Swift’s Gulliver (that I mean rleative to his Houyhnhnms and Yahos) to be a worse book to peruse, and those which we are forbid, as the most flagitious and obscene. One absurdity of this author (a wretched Philosopher, though a great Wit) is well worth remarking - in order to render the nature of man odious, and the mature of beasts amiable, he is compelled to give human characters to his hearsts, and beastly characters to his men; so that we are to admire the beasts, not for being beasts, but amiable men; and to detest the men, not for being men, but detestable beasts.” I believe so strange an interpretation of an author’s meaning, never fell from the pen of any commentator.’ [see also Preface to Irish Writers, infra.]

John Gilbert, MRIA, History of the City of Dublin, 3 vols. (Dublin: Duffy 1861), Preface quotes Anthologia Hibernica on Harris’s The History [...] of Dublin [1766]: ‘[...] very little use is made of Harris, who is full of gross errors and misrepresentations.’ (Gilbert, op. cit., Vol. I, p.ix.) Gilbert remarks: ‘the modern part is notoriously deficient ... posthumous publication of a work left incomplete by its author and another hand had added a very brief and imperfect sketch of the state of a few public institutions.’ (Ibid., p.x.)

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Russell K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP [1943] 1959), p.95f., records that Harris m. the grand-dg. of Ware [not great-g.]; details of the two vols. of History of the Writers of Ireland as above [Eager, 1980]; cites Harris’s Hibernica, 2 vols. (Dublin 1747-50), is a collection of ‘antient pieces relating to Ireland’, in which he condemns native Irish historians as defective Irish (Hib., p.136). Note: Alspach draws attention to a passage in Harris’s editorial notes in Works of Sir James Ware (1809 edn.), where he speaks of two manuscript translations of Keating in his possession; Alspach further cites David Comyn’s reference this passage in his modern translation of Foras Feasa Ar Eirinn (Irish Texts Society, 1902, 1908, 1914; IV, ix.; Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798, 1959, p.83.)

Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986): Harris anonymously published Remarks on the affairs and trade of England and Ireland (1691), denouncing importation of French wine and Flemish linen [350]. [In the same pamphlet] he contrasted loyalty [of Protestants] with unfair treatment, ‘that it seems hard, that an English man, because he goes to inhabit in Ireland, or is sent thither to help secure that Conquest to England, should therefore lose a great part of the Priviledge of an English man, and be treated as a Forreigner’; from Remarks on the affairs and trade of England and Ireland (London 1691), p.36 [344]. Sir Walter Harris could praise English residence of Anglo-Irish landlords as a reinforcement to unity in the 1690s [355]. Undertook his edition of Ware, under the auspices of the Physico-Historical Society, appearing in 1739 and 1746 with subscriptions from Madden, Dobbs, Archbishop Boulter [to whom Ware’s Works are here dedicated], and Lawrence Parsons, Sir Richard Cox, and Jonathan Swift; modernised and expanded appreciably, especially in treatment of Irish language and literature, drawing on writings of O’Flaherty, O’Molly, and MacCurtin; attacks Scalaiger for not seeing resemblance of Irish and Welsh (Vol. 2, 22); shows influence of Lhuyd in providing ‘A comparative Table of some few Words among Thousands, sharing the Affinity between the Irish and the British languages (Vol. 2, 26ff); takes pre-Christian Gaelic authors from O’Flaherty and Keating (Vol. 2, 23f); expands Ware’s criticism of Cambrensis by reference to John Lynch’s Cambrensis eversus; but calls the penal laws ‘wholesome Bills’ (Vol. 3, 220). He recognised the element of literary tradition in Irish historical lore, ‘It should be considered, that the Compilers of the antient History of Ireland have drawn their Accounts from the Sonnets of the antient Bards, and had (it must be confessed injudiciously) copied for Truth the Metaphors and Flights of those Poetic Madmen ..’ (Vol. 3, 106). [Cont.]

Joseph Th. Leerssen (Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael, 1986) - cont.: In answering anti-Irish reports in historians since Strabo, he says, ‘When such an odious Picture is drawn of us, who, my Lord [Newport, chairman of the Physico-Hist. Soc.] can refrain from a just Indignation? [...] But you know, my Lord, that these are groundless Aspersions [...] The Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom are as Polite, well-bred, and humane, as those of other Nations; the Merchants and Traders as just and honest in their Dealings; and the bulk of the People not inferior to the Populace elsewhere [...] What Country is Free from such Exceptions?’ (p.136). He sees the Physico-Historical Society as having been ‘erected with a view of removing these gross Misrepresentations, which have been handed down from early Ages concerning this Country, and are yet continued’, and endorses the patriotic plan of a general History of Ireland ‘shewing the ancient and modern State of it in true and proper Colours, together with the several Revolutions in property, Religion, and Government’ because it would ‘tend not only to honour, but to the real Emolument of the Kingdom’ (p.136) [376]. ALSO, Walter Harris, a lawyer from Co. Laois, wrote a counter-blast [to Curry’s Brief Account] called Fiction unmasked, or an answer to a dialogue lately published by a popish physician (1725) [note orth. Infra], all but disclosing Curry’s identity [373]; [Curry] mercilessly exposed by Walter Harris [386]. [Page refs. to Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael, 1986]. And BIBL, Walter Harris, Remarks on the affairs and trade of England and Ireland (London 1691); The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, 3 vols. (Dublin 1739-46); Fiction unmasked, or, an answer to a dialogue published by a popish physician (Dublin 1752).

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George A. Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1957), Little is critical of Malton, Dixon-Hardy, Warburton and Walsh, even Haliday, in uncritically copying from Harris ‘as their supreme source’ the apocryphal name of Dublin as Druim Cuill Coille, which he gives on his History of the City of Dublin, p.10, ‘The Irish called it Drom-chall-Coil, i.e., the brow of a hazel-wood, from our abundance of those trees growing about it. But this name must have prevailed before (by the great increase of buildings, and confluence of inhabitants) it merited the character of a city.’ [35-36] Little has found no reference to the name in the Annals or Lives. ALSO, Harris, with the sanction of Anthologica Hibernica, states that the buildings in Dublin were originally erected of wattles plastered with clay and thatched [...] [characteristic of] temporary structures similar to that of the great Hall erected at the request of Henry II beside the Thingmoe. this building struck the Normans with admiration by its beauty; it was described as constructed more celtico, that is, after the custom of the country. [C.130]. FOR information from Harris on Iseult’s Tower.

Gerard McCoy, ‘“Patriots, Protestants and Papists”: Religion and the Ascendancy, 1714-60’, in Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring 1994), pp.105-18, citing Harris’s retort to John Curry’s attempt to show that the Rebellion was incited by Ulster Presbyterians: ‘A charge so Monstrous, so Atrocious, and so destitute of the least foudnation in truth, that I much Admire, that any man, not entirely given up to delusion and deceit, could propagate such wild and unsupported Notions.’ (Fiction Unmasked, or An Answer to A Dialogue Lately Published by a Popish Physitian, Dublin 1752, p.vi; McCoy, pp.107-08.)

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Quotations
Hiftoriographorum Aliorumque Scriptorum Hiberniæ Commentarium (1736), Preface: ‘That the Irish do, and ever have excelled in Arts, or Arms, is a thing with no Small Vigour contested, and deny’d by a neighbouring People, which are so very far from allowing them any Share of Elevated Understanding, that scarcely will they acknowledge that any one unfortunately born in Ireland can be capable of Common Sense or bravery; as if Irishmen, Coward, and Blockhead were Synonymous Terms, and signified one, and the same thing; and when any extraordinary Genius of Ireland happens by Encouragement to be distinguish’d, they immediately lay claim to him, crying out as the Jews did of Christ, can a Prophet come out of Galilee? Can a Man of Sense come out of Ireland? This I have heard myself in regard to the great Ornament, and Friend of our Country, the REVEREND DEAN SWIFT; I have been heartily laugh’d at in London for presuming to think so Eminent a Genius was an Irishman; and full often have I heard several different Parts of England honoured with the Name of his Native place; when if I am not imposed upon, I cou’d go almost to the House where he was born in Dublin. Their Courage and Loyalty, both which pretty much depend upon good Understanding, have been sufficienly, and Elegantly proved by Mr. Foreman in his Letter to the Candid Free-Britton, which see. And now I shall endeavour to make it plain that they Excell in Wit as well as Arms. At this Day few are not the Ornaments produced by the University of Dublin; and I think I may without Extravagance affirm it, that it is almost a Miracle, considering the vast Discouragement it lyes under from the Promotion of Foreigners and Neglect of her [A2] own Sons, that they make such great Progress both in Human, and Philosophic Knowledge. Since then unencourag’d, nay depresed they arrive to such Height of Perfection, as the Generality of them do, it must necessarily follow that there is something refin’d and penetrating in the Nature of the Irish, a cast of Mind well fitted for Study, and a Clearness of Head to make just and proper Distinctions. It may perhaps be ask’d why these Men of Genius make no Figure at Home, and if the finishing of their Talents is not owing to their Converstations with their Neighbours. I cannot deny but they may receive Improvement from the English; and for the first Part of the Qeustion it is Answered by a melancholy Truth, which his this; that in these Latter Days England has fed the most of Men of Genius that Ireland has produced, whether they are fofrced to Roam to avoid the Difficulties they must certainly encoutner thro the strange Conduct of their own Countrymen in Power at Home. I could say much upon this Subject, but it is a Subject will not very well bear being harangued upon.’ [Cont.]

Hiftoriographorum Aliorumque Scriptorum Hiberniæ Commentarium (1736) - cont. ‘This Island was ffrom the first Introduction of Christianity, remarkable for many Centuries for its Learning and Piety, tho’ it is very much to be regretted that by the Incursions, and Depredations of the Danes, and Norwegians (the Huns and Goths of our Country), Multitudes of Valuable Manuscripts have perished. Many of those lost Writers flourished some Ages after St. Patrick, at which time Ireland was justify called the Island of Saints, and it was common to ask all over Europe in them [sic] Days, if a Man who affected Learning was in Ireland, as it was with the Romans to enquire if a Philosopher, or Orator had been at Athens. / Many Writers ascrib’d to Ireland are here Industriously omitted, some from the Obscurity, others from the Uncertainty we lye under of their being Irish, such I mean as have been claimed by other Nations, but many are passed over with regret, because the Knowledge of them, and their Writings, has not reached us. AN.’ ensuing text incl. Chapt. XII, ‘Writers of the Sixteenth Century’ [K, K2, et seq.], and Chap. XIII, ‘Biographers of an Uncertain Age’. [For individual commentaries, see under Philip Flattisbury, Richard Stanihurt, Thady Dowling, Manus O’Donell, Patrick Finglas.]

Legendary writing: ‘There is one consequence [...] that hath followed from such a legendary way of writing, which, had authors of this time foreseen, would have made them cautious in this respect. Miracles are things of such an extraordinary nature, that they must be well attested, in order to gain credit among me. But such writers, by introducing them on every frivolous occasion, without number, measure, or use, have called in question the truth of every thing they relate; and, in that case, have brought into discredit and even ridicule, the real miracles, which, perhaps, this holy man may have wrought. The lavish use they have made of them serves only to oppress the faith, as a profusion of scent overpowereth the brain. By this great indiscretion, they hav caused their writings to be generally looked upon [15] as fabulous, and their unskilful management hath only served to bring our great patron into contempt. [... &c.]; Note that he is called here ‘a man eminently distinguished for his antipathy to the Roman Catholic communion and its professors’ and therefore treated as an advocatus diaboli.’ (Quoted in Anon. [prob. John Lynch], Life of St Patrick, Dublin: Fitzpatrick [for Maynooth] 1810, p.16.)

Banned Irish: ‘The Irish Tongue is in a manner banished among the common People, and what little of it is spoken can be heard only among the inferior Rank of the Irish Papists; and that little diminishes every Day by the great Desire the poor natives have that their children should be taught to read and write in the English Tongue in the Charter and other English Protestant Schools, to which they willingly send them [...] Their Trade and Commerce are carried on in the English Language.’ (Walter Harris & Charles Smith, The Antient and Present State of the County of Down, Dublin 1744; quoted in Séamas Ó Saothraí, ‘William Neilson, DD, MRIA 1774-1831’, in Meascra Uladh, Monaghan 1974).

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References
Alan Eager, 1980, lists that Sir James Ware, History of the Writers of Ireland, 2 bks., contains i) those born in that kingdom, 2) foreigners who enjoyed preferment or office, or were educated in it; continued to the present date by Walter Harris, 2 vols. (Dublin 1764).

COPAC lists works incl. 1] Hibernica, or, Some antient pieces relating to Ireland [2 vols. in 1] (Dublin: Printed for John Milliken 1770), copy held at University of London Library with Preface signed and dated, Walter Harris, Clarendon-Street, February 1st, 1747 and note: A third part was prepared for the press but never published; cites Dictionary of National Biography: ‘An essay on the defects in the histories of Ireland [...]’; has own t.p. [and] contains 13 pieces about Ireland and its history pt. 1. History of Ireland/Maurice Regan - Story of King Richard II/French gentleman - Voyage of Sir Richard Edgecombe - Breviate of the getting of Ireland, and of the decaie of the same/Patrick Finglass - Project of King James I, for the division and plantation of the six escheated counties of Ulster--Orders and conditions to be observed by the undertakers, &c. of the said plantation - Commission of inquiry in order to the establishment of the said plantation - Instructions to the said commissioners - Survey of the said six escheated counties after the settlement of the said plantation/Nicholas Pynnar - Letter from Sir Thomas Philips to King Charles I concerning the defects of the Londoners in their plantation - Essay on the defects in the histories of Ireland - pt. 2. A declaration setting forth how, and by what means, the laws and statutes of England, from time to time, came to be of force in Ireland/Sir Richard Bolton - Answer of Sir Samuel Mayart [...] to a book intitled -... &c. 2] John Curry, Historical Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion in the year 1641; extracted from Parliamentary Journals, State Acts, and ... the most eminent Protestant historians ... In a letter to Walter Harris, Esq; occasioned by his answer to a late Dialogue on the causes, motives, and mischiefs of this rebellion: “A reply to W. Harris’s Fiction unmasked: or, an Answer to a dialogue lately published, etc.” With a dedicatory preface signed M. R. (London, 1758), pp. xiv, ix-316pp., 8o., and Do. [another edn.] (London, 1765), iv, 279pp., 12o. [Other listings as supra.]

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Ulster Libraries: Belfast Central Public Library holds Hibernica (1770); History of Dublin (1766); Topographical and chorographical survey of the county of Down (1740). University of Ulster (Morris Collection) holds Hibernica, or some ancient pieces relation to Ireland, never hitherto made publick [2 vols. in 1] (1747). Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast) holds The History of the Life of King William III (Dublin 1749); The Ancient & Present State of Co. Down (Dublin 1745); Hibernica (Dublin 1770).

Cathach Books (Cat. 12, 1994) lists History & Antiquities of the City of Dublin from the Earliest Accounts (Dublin 1766) [£295].

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Notes
J. Blaymires illustrated Harris’s new edition of Works of Ware [1736-37], drawing Cashel and other plates; see Toby Barnard, ‘Art, Architecture, Artifacts and Ascendancy’, in Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal, 1, 2 (Autumn 1994), p.26. [Details from correspondence reported in Strickland.]

T. C. Croker, The Popular Songs of Ireland (London: Routledge), contains a first chapter on St Patrick in which Walter Harris is cited as recommending that a life of Patrick be published as ‘the means of rectifying our deluded countrymen, who spend the festival of this most abstemious and mortified man in riot and excess, as if they looked upon him only in the light of a jolly companion.’ (See Croker, pp.9-34.)

Lady Morgan: In The Wild Irish Girl (1806), Sydney Owenson [later Lady Morgan], supplies a footnote in which she quotes a law cited in Harris’s Hibnernica regarding the expulsion of the Irish bards from the Pale - resumably one of the Statutes of Kilkenny: ‘Item – That noe Irish minstralls, rhymers, thanaghs, ne bards, be messengers to desire any goods of any man dwelling within the English pale, upon pain of forfeiture of all their goods, and their bodies be imprisoned at the king’s will. Harris' Hibernica, p. 98]

E. Estyn Evans: In Mourne Country (Dundalgan Press 1951) Evans writes of the work he calls ‘Harris’ as ‘a prejdiced but nevertheless valuable work of 1744’ (q.p.)

Sir James Ware: The Brief Chronology added to Sir James Ware, The Annals of the Affairs of Ireland (1705) was prepared by his Ware’s son Robert, not by Harris, who issued the edition.

Namesakes: Among several namesakes of the older period, one wrote on medicine in works such as De morbis acutis infantum (London: S. Smith & B. Walford 1705) and An exact enquiry into, and cure of the acute diseases of infants (1694) and another, being First Paster of the Congregationalists in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, offered A Discourse [on Exod. xx. 8-11], delivered at Londonderry East-Parish, at a meeting ... convened for the purpose of devising measures to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath; to which is added, the address and resolves adopted at said Meeting (Concord 1814).

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