Joseph Harris (February 1704 – 1764) was a British blacksmith, astronomer, navigator, economist, natural philosopher, government adviser and King's Assay Master at the Royal Mint.
But we are told that he was apprenticed to his uncle Thomas Powell, a blacksmith, and that he met and fell in love with Anne Jones, one of three daughters of an eminent Brecknock family, whom he courted respectfully for at least 12 years and then married soon after he was appointed to the Royal Mint in 1736.
From the fact that, despite the difference in their social position, Anne's father, Thomas Jones II, High Sheriff of Brecknock for 1722, recommended that she treat Joseph's attentions with respect, we may guess that his brilliance was well known locally.
It may be that father and son Thomas Jones I and II had, as was common in Wales, thrown their library open to a gifted but poor village boy, thus explaining the description of Joseph as 'self-taught'.
Within a few days of Joseph's arrival in London he met the Governor of New England at Roger Jones's home, and Edmond Halley was showing him 'a quadrant worth at least £300', so it may not be far from the truth to assume that the introductions included one to the then Astronomer Royal.
They co-operated to produce at least two star-maps, Stellarum Fixarum Hemisphaerium Australe and Boreale; in the plane of the equator; Joseph's name is writ large in the headline text, though the copyright remained in the hands of Senex, as after his death his wife sold it.
Emilie du Chatelet, mistress and colleague of Voltaire, which may be the one now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and perhaps seized from her son's library when he was beheaded during the French Revolution.
When he returned from Vera Cruz in April 1728 he immediately started work on self-publishing his Treatise of Navigation and producing for Thomas Wright, instrument maker, his Description and Use of the Globe; and the Orrery.
The South Sea Company had no difficulty in selling its goods, which were much in demand for their quality; but the Spanish government, faced with policing vast territories with inadequate forces, was not so keen and, in protest, seized the Prince Frederick, detaining her in the Gulf for several years while a complex international dispute played out.
[10] By 11 April 1728[11] Joseph had returned to London, some years ahead of the Prince Frederick, and several of his subsequent letters speak of its continued detention, the death of its Captain Williams in Vera Cruz and the political events around the negotiations.
[12] The sale price was 12shillings (60p) and its subscribers are many, varied and of much interest still: they included five members of the Royal Society (Halley among them), the Earl of Godolphin, Alexander Pope, Ann Knight (wealthy daughter of James Craggs, Postmaster General in the Government, who in March 1721 had taken a lethal dose of laudanum the night before he was due to be questioned by a Parliamentary Inquiry into the South Sea Bubble), as well as many other Brecknock and London luminaries.
To one such as myself, who devoted much of his working life to the conduct of Her Majesty's ships about what Harris calls "the terraqueous globe whereon we live", it was refreshing to discover that the precepts drilled into me when I was young were old then, and certainly not new in 1730.
The necessity of keeping up the log, of frequent examination of the elements, of taking the Sun's bearing at sunset when the lower limb is half a width above the horizon; all these and many more were the meat and drink of my time as midshipman.
In this he anticipates the impatience of Captain STS Lecky, who in his famous Tables of 1890 reserves the epithets 'Mugwump' and 'not fit to navigate an Essex barge or a Runcorn flat' for those who might fail to act upon his advice.
Even the urbane Captain JAG Troup, Royal Navy, in his truly excellent 1934 work "On the Bridge", has a chuckle at the expense of those who don't observe ordinary caution and good practice at sea.
Shortly after this, Joseph used his friendship with Walter Harte in an apparently unsuccessful attempt to get his youngest brother Howell into Saint Mary Hall, Oxford, now part of Oriel College.
The only record of Howell's presence at Saint Mary Hall is the single day of his matriculation, 25 November 1735, and there is no sign that he ever slept or ate there, although his registration fees continued to be paid until 1738.
But about 1730, just before he left for Jamaica, he began to suspect, perhaps from his mother Susanna, that maybe all was not lost, and early in 1733 wrote a passionate letter to Howell[19] about how his despairing love for her had made it impossible for him to settle down.
[23] Despite his position at the Mint, Joseph retained his interest in navigation, and in the Transactions of the Royal Society 1739-41 41 an article by him was published, entitled "An Account of an Improvement on the Terrestrial Globe".
Of extra interest is that the court papers reveal the existence of a third daughter, JoAnna, in addition to the already known Anne and Mary, though it doesn't provide any more primary evidence of any of their dates of birth.
[26] On 2 April 1757 Joseph, after another period of serious illness, wrote to his brother, Howell, that 'His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to grant me for life an additional allowance of £300 a year and I am to have a deputy[27] to assist me in the office.
Shortly after the inception of the Cymmrodorion as 'a social, cultural, literary and philanthropic institution', a London-based Welsh learned society, he is listed in 1759 as a Corresponding Member with an abode in the Mint Tower.
[30] It maybe wasn't sent to, or was mislaid by, Lord Macclesfield, and the first publication of Joseph's "Account of the Transit of Venus over the Sun 6 June 1761" was in January 2010, when a transcript of it and other contemporary letters and diary entries appeared in the journal Brycheiniog.
Surprisingly, in 1762 Joseph appears, perhaps at the request of Lord Shelburne, then President of the Board of Trade, to have joined, and perhaps acted as Membership Secretary of, the newly founded Boodle's Club.
A year and a half later, on 26 September 1764, he too died unexpectedly after a short illness and was buried on 5 October in the crypt of Saint Peter ad Vincula in the Tower, a site now lost in later alterations.
His epitaph in Saint Gwendolen's Church, Talgarth, reads: His great Abilities, and unshaken Integrity were uniformly directed to the Good of his Country by indefatigable Attention having gained Proficiency in every branch of Scientific Knowledge.
His political Talents were well known to the Ministers of Power in his Days, who fail'd not to improve on all the Wise and learned Ideas, which greatness of Mind, Candour with love of his Country led him to Communicate.
Stanesby Alchorne attributed his familiarity with Joseph's thoughts to 'having had frequent opportunities, during seven years close intimacy with Mr Harris, of perusing the original manuscript, and hearing the several parts repeatedly explained and enlarged upon'.
It was either she or her uncle, Thomas Harris (disapproving father-in-law of actress and writer Mary Robinson) who placed the elegant memorial plaque to Joseph in Saint Gwendolen's church, Talgarth, Powys.
Eventually she moved back to Brecon and, with the money from her parents and the large, unexpected inheritance of the estate of her wealthy uncle Thomas, Joseph's younger brother, started a respected line of descendants in Brecknockshire.