Joseph Harris

Joseph Harris (1703 – 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 remain much the same now as they had been in 1805, when Theophilus 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. From the moment of his baptism there are uncertainties. He was baptised on 16 February 1703 in the ancient church of Saint Gwendolen, Talgarth, on the slopes of the Black Mountains in the Welsh county of Brecknock, now subsumed into the county of Powys.