Harris [q. v.] was his elder brother. Robert Harris entered the navy in January 1822, and, serving almost continuously in the Mediterranean, was a midshipman of the Euryalus frigate during the little war with Algiers in 1824, and of the Cambrian at the battle of Navarino, 20 Oct. 1827, and when she was wrecked at Carabusa on 31 Jan. 1828. After his return to England early in 1829 he was borne on the books of the Royal George yacht, during which time he was really serving on board the Onyx and Pantaloon, tenders, on the coast of South America, in the West Indies, on the coast of Spain and Portugal, or in the Channel and on the coast of Ireland. On 21 May 1833 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and the following December was appointed to the Excellent, then recently established as a school of gunnery, at Portsmouth, under the command of Captain Thomas Hastings (1790–1870) [q. v.] From her he was appointed in January 1836 to be gunnery-lieutenant of the Melville with Captain Douglas, and, later on, with Richard Saunders Dundas [q. v.], under whose command he served in China, and was specially promoted to the rank of commander on 8 June 1841 for his services in the Canton river, and particularly at the capture of the Bogue forts on 26 Feb. 1841. During 1842, while on half-pay, he studied at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth; and from September 1844 to May 1846 commanded the Flying Fish on the west coast of Africa. In March 1848 he was appointed commander of the Ganges in the Channel fleet with Captain Henry Smith, and from her was promoted to the rank of captain on 19 Oct. 1849. In March 1851 he was appointed to the Prince Regent, also in the Channel fleet, as flag-captain to Commodore William Fanshawe Martin, but left her in May 1852 on Martin's being relieved by Rear-admiral Corry. It is interesting to trace these details of his service under such officers as Hastings, Dundas, and Martin, as explaining and illustrating his peculiar fitness for the appointment which he received in January 1854 to the Illustrious, then commissioned as training ship for landsmen entered into the navy, according to a plan of Sir James Graham's, and who consequently became generally known as ‘Jemmy Graham's novices.’ In his discharge of this new and exceptional duty Harris displayed such ability and resource that when, in 1857, it was determined to give effect to a long-mooted scheme for improving the elementary education and training of young officers, the execution of it was entrusted to Harris, in the first instance on board the Illustrious, from which, on 1 Jan. 1859, he and the cadets were moved to the Britannia, then in Portsmouth harbour, but in November 1861 sent to Portland. Harris continued to hold this difficult and important post till October 1862, during which time the system of education of naval cadets took form, and was permanently established on its present basis. He had no further employment, and died at Southsea, 16 Jan. 1865. Harris married in 1843 Priscilla Sophia, daughter of Captain Penruddocke of the Fusilier guards, and left issue a son, Robert Hastings, now a captain in the navy, and two daughters.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Times, 17 Jan. 1865; Navy Lists; information from Captain R. H. Harris.]
HARRIS, SAMUEL (1682–1733), first professor of modern history at Cambridge, was born on 9 Dec. 1682, entered Merchant Taylors' School on 11 Sept. 1694, and proceeded to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1703, M.A. 1707, and was elected fellow. He was Craven scholar of the university in 1701. In October 1724 he was admitted first regius professor of modern history at Cambridge. The professorship was founded by George I in the previous May. Harris's inaugural lecture (in Latin) was printed. He died on 21 Dec. 1733 (Gent. Mag. 1733, p. 663).
Harris was author of a very curious and learned commentary on the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, which his widow Mary issued after his death in 1735 (London, 4to), and dedicated to Queen Caroline.
[Robinson's Reg. Merchant Taylors' School, i. 333; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iv. 182, 185.]
HARRIS, THOMAS (d. 1820), proprietor and manager of Covent Garden Theatre, came of a respectable family, and was brought up in trade. In the autumn of 1767, in connection with George Colman the elder [q. v.], Rutherford, and William Powell, he purchased from John Beard [q. v.] the patent of Covent Garden Theatre, which that actor had held since the death of his father-in-law, Rich. The theatre opened 14 Sept. 1767, with the ‘Rehearsal,’ in which Powell spoke an occasional prologue by Whitehead, containing the lines:
For Brentford's state two kings could once suffice,
In ours behold four kings of Brentford rise.
Colman undertook the management; a violent quarrel between Harris and Colman arose during the first season in consequence of the pretensions of Mrs. Lessingham, an actress with whom Harris lived. Colman,
