Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/26

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and in 1823 was appointed organist of St. Olave's Church, Southwark. He held a similar position at Blackburn, Lancashire, from 1828 to 1831, when he became singing-master and assistant organist at the Manchester Collegiate Church, now cathedral. In 1848 he succeeded William Sudlow as organist and choirmaster of the cathedral. He was for many years connected as director with the Gentlemen's Glee Club and other societies in Manchester. He published: 1. ‘A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes,’ Southwark, 1827. 2. ‘The Cathedral Daily Service,’ Manchester, 1844, 12mo. 3. ‘The Musical Expression; a Guide for Parents,’ &c., 1845, 8vo. He published also two anthems and some other compositions, and four of his glees were printed after his death. Six chants and three arrangements for responses to the commandments are included in Joule's ‘Collection of Chants.’ He wrote some good ‘Cathedral’ services which have not been published. He died of congestion of the lungs at Manchester on 10 Feb. 1869.

Joseph Thorne Harris, (1828–1869), his son, born at Bow, London, 1828, died at Broughton, Manchester, 1869, was a musician of great talent and accomplishments. He was a brilliant pianist and a prolific writer of musical compositions, a few of which have been printed.

[Manchester Courier, 12 Feb. 1869; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 691; Brown's Dict. of Musicians, 1886, p. 303; information supplied by Mr. B. St. J. B. Joule.]

C. W. S.

HARRIS, JOSEPH MACDONALD (1789–1860), musician, born in London (Brown) in 1789, was a chorister at Westminster Abbey, and afterwards studied under Robert Cooke [q. v.] Harris published a number of songs, some duets and trios, glees, and pianoforte music; arranged Burgoyne's ‘Collection of Psalms’ (2 vols. 4to, 1827); taught music; and conducted at minor concerts. He died in May 1860.

[Brown's Biog. Dict. of Musicians, p. 303; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 692.]

L. M. M.

HARRIS, MOSES (fl. 1766–1785), entomologist and engraver, is said to have been born in 1731. From his uncle, Moses Harris, a member of an old-established Aurelian society, he derived his first instruction in the science to which from childhood he was strongly attached. He afterwards became secretary to a new Aurelian society. His circumstances appear to have been comparatively easy, though he had reason to complain of losses occasioned by the ‘unsteady and fallacious Behaviour of a Person too nearly connected in my Concerns’ (Introduction to the Aurelian). Though without much knowledge, he was an acute and industrious observer, and a good entomological artist. For twenty years he engaged as a labour of love in drawing, engraving, and colouring insects, chiefly moths and butterflies, which he published under the title of ‘The Aurelian, or Natural History of English Insects, namely Moths and Butterflies, together with the Plants on which they feed,’ fol. London, 1766, forty-five plates, with descriptive text. Four additional plates, with table of terms, index, and designations of Linnæus, were afterwards published separately. The book was reissued in 1778, 1794, and in 1840 under the editorship of J. O. Westwood. The insects were all drawn by Harris from the life, the engraving was his first attempt, and the colouring is very brilliant. The descriptions are both accurate and perspicuous. In the frontispiece the author gives a portrait of himself arrayed in full insect-hunting costume, and reposing on a bank with a large chip box of butterflies in his hand. He afterwards published: 1. ‘An Essay precedeing [sic] a Supplement to the Aurelian, wherein are considered the Tendons and Membranes of the Wings of Butterflies. … Illustrated with copper-plates’ (in English and French), 4to, London (1767). 2. ‘The English Lepidoptera, or the Aurelian's Pocket Companion, containing a Catalogue of upward of four hundred Moths and Butterflies,’ 8vo, London, 1775. 3. ‘An Exposition of English Insects’ (in English and French), 4to, London, 1776. Copies were issued with new title-pages, dated 1781, 1782, 1783, and 1786. 4. ‘Natural System of Colours’ (edited by Thomas Martyn), 4to, London, 1811. Sir Joshua Reynolds accepted the dedication of the edition of this work, published apparently in the author's lifetime. Some discoveries ascribed to zoologists of the present century were anticipated by Harris (cf. art. ‘Aurelian’ in Retrospective Review, 2nd ser. i. 230–45). Besides the above works, the plates of which were all drawn, etched, and coloured by himself, he executed in like manner most of those in the three volumes of Dru Drury's ‘Illustrations of Natural History’ (exotic insects), 4to, 1770–82, a book which owes its chief value to the excellence of its illustrations. He likewise contributed some trifling drawings to the ‘Catalogue’ of Andrew Peter Dupont's collection of natural curiosities, now in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 18904–10). From a letter of Dru Drury to Harris, dated 5 April 1770, it appears that the latter was then residing some distance from London, was married, and had a son (memoir of Drury in Jardine's Naturalist's Library, 1843,