HARRIS, Walter. The History of the Life and Reign of William-Henry, Prince of Nassau and Orange, Stadtholder of the United Provinces, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, &c. In which the Affairs of Ireland are more particularly handled, than in any other History.

ABOLITIONISTS COPY

With an Appendix, containing Copies of Some Original Papers not hitherto published. Illustrated with plans of Sieges and Battles in Ireland, and Medals struck upon the most Memorable Occurrences of his Life. As also, Two Dissertations. I. On the Government of Holland. II. A brief History of the illustrious House of Orange. Dublin: Printed by Edward Bate in George’s- Lane, for the Author, 1749. Folio. pp. [4], xii, 502, xcii (appendix and index), [12 (leaves of plates). Page 251 has been mis-numbered 241. Contemporary full calf. Spine expertly rebacked, title in gilt on modern red morocco label. Some scraping to boards, repair to margin of one map and one leaf. From the library of Granville Sharp with his signature on margin of p.1. A very good copy. Very scarce.
ESTC T146486. Bradshaw 1641. Gilbert 354.
Walter Harris’s ‘History of William III’ was printed anonymously in Dublin in 1747, in four volumes. Harris complained that this work had been published, contrary to his wishes in a curtailed form by the Dublin bookseller, who had undertaken the cost of its publication, and he himself issued this unabridged edition illustrated with fine engravings two years later. There are fine folding maps and plans of: Londonderry, Inniskillen, Carrickfergus, Dundalk, Charlemont, Cork, Kinsale, Ballymore, Athlone, Galway, Limerick and of the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim. It was befitting that Harris wrote this history, for his father had served as a lieutenant in the Williamite wars in Ireland in 1690-91. There is also a comprehensive appendix containing copies of some original papers and documents not hitherto published; a list of the High Sheriffs of Ireland for the year 1687; A List of the constituent members of the several new corporations established by King James II; The Prince of Orange’s declaration, published upon his landing in England; A List of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, as they were in 1689; A List of the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses returned to the Parliament, beginning in the 7th of May 1689; An Address to King James in behalf of the Purchasers under the Act of Settlement, by Judge Keating; An Act for the Attainder of divers rebels; A List of the Persons attainted
in King James’s Parliament of 1689, etc.
Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was one of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle slaves in Sierra Leone, and founded the St. George’s Bay Company, a forerunner of the Sierra Leone Company. His efforts led to both the founding of the Province of Freedom, and later on Freetown, Sierra Leone, and so he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone. He was also a biblical scholar and classicist, and a talented musician.

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