Walter Harris

Who was Walter Harris?

Walter Harris was an Irish historian and writer.

Harris was educated at Kilkenny College and Trinity College, Dublin. He married Elizabeth Ware, great-granddaughter of Sir James Ware, the historian, in 1716 and became vicar-general to the Archbishop of Meath in 1753.

In the 1730s, along with others of his time, he was in favour of a scheme to compile and publish histories of all Irish counties. He also started to revise and republish the historical and topographical writings of Sir James Ware, translating them from Latin to English. The first to be published was Historiographorum Aliorumque Scriptorum Hiberniae Commentarium: or, a history of the Irish writers. To increase the attractiveness of these books he commissioned from Jonas Blaymires drawings of buildings and their contents.

He received a government pension in 1748, which enabled him to work on histories and religious writings.

In the 1740s he was involved with the Physico-Historical Society, a similar society to the Royal Dublin Society, along with such luminaries as Robert Jocelyn, Dr. Samuel Madden, the philanthropist; Thomas Prior, the founder of the Royal Dublin Society; John Rutty the physician and naturalist; John Lodge, author of Peerage of Ireland; Charles Smith, the topographer and historian.