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Joseph Harris (1702 – 1764) was a British blacksmith, astronomer, navigator, economist, natural philosopher, government adviser and King's Assay Master at the Royal Mint. "Of Joseph Harris, the eldest, who married one of the daughters, and heiress, of Thomas Jones, of Tredustan, little has been recorded beyond the information derived from his monument in the church. His talents were highly respectable, and indeed pre-eminent. But though he wrote several astronomical treatises, which are highly thought of, and was esteemed by the learned and great of his day, no biographer has written his life: no anecdotes of him have been preserved; nor have his virtues or talents been recorded farther than as they appear in his works, which in general are anonymous. Indeed, that ''modesty'', which is so amiable in him, seems to have descended to his posterity where he was born, for after all the enquiries I have made with respect of him, instead of learning any other particulars of his life, I have received only general encomiums and empty praise. I am much hurt that this self-taught philosopher, who was an honour to this county of Brecon, should pass almost unnoticed. The blame lies not with me, for it seems to have been destined, that his record should be only in heaven." Theophilus Jones, ''A History of the County of Brecknock'' (1805) == Early life == As far as biographies of Joseph Harris are concerned, things remained much the same now as they had been in 1805, when Theophilis Jones was writing. The Harris family history of three brothers, all highly successful in entirely unrelated avocations, has until now concentrated on the youngest of the three, Howell Harris, known as the Apostle of Wales. But now, three hundred years after his birth, attention may be paid to Joseph, the polymath eldest son of this extraordinary family. He was baptized on 16 February 1704〔all year dates in this piece have been altered to conform with the 1752 calendar change by which the quarter from the beginning of January to the end of March was assimilated into the same year as the following April to December. But unless specifically stated, the old style dates of the day and the month have been retained〕 in the ancient church of Saint Gwendolen, Talgarth, on the slopes of the Black Mountains in the then Welsh county of Brecknockshire (now subsumed into the county of Powys), though his memorial plaque in the same church suggests that he was born up to two years earlier. He was the firstborn of Howell Howell, a joiner who arrived in about 1700 from Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, and Susanna Powell, a local woman with relatives in the village, and they lived in a small cluster of houses called Trefeca, (but then written Trevecka which sounds the same) about a mile south of Talgarth in the valley of the Breconshire River Llynfi, a tributary of the River Wye. The spirit of the age was to anglicise, especially in this area close to the border with England, and some time before the baptism of Joseph the family name changed to Harris; nonetheless, all family members were bilingual in Welsh and English. Four more children were born in the next few years, of whom Thomas (baptized June 1707) and Howell (baptized February 1714) survived beyond infancy to old age.〔baptismal records Saint Gwendolen Church〕 For Joseph's life in Talgarth before he moved to London the authority is the occasionally unreliable work of Theophilus Jones's ''History'', which found little to say, as the quotation above shows. But we do know that he had been apprenticed to his mother’s brother as a blacksmith, and that he met and fell in love with Anne Jones, from an eminent local family, whom he courted 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 differences in their social position, Anne’s father, Thomas Jones II, High Sheriff of Brecknock, recommended that she treat Joseph’s attentions with respect, we may guess that his brilliance was well-known locally In the last weeks of 1724 Joseph moved to London with introductions from Brecknock MP Roger Jones. 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 guess that the introductions included one to the then Astronomer Royal. This letter is the first in a collection of more than 3300 documents made by Joseph's youngest brother, Howell, now available in digest form in Boyd Stanley Schlenther and Eryn Mant White's ''Calendar of the Trevecka Letters'' (2003).〔henceforward referred to in footnotes as S & W〕 The manuscripts themselves now lie in the Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales,〔henceforward referred to in footnotes as LGC/NLW〕 Aberystwyth. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Harris (British astronomer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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