Men of Kent and Kentishmen/John Harris
John Harris,
ENCYCLOPÆDIST, ETC.
(illegible text)t author and compiler is claimed as a man of Kent, his birthplace does not appear. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and was for some time perpetual curate of Stroud, and Prebend of Rochester. His attainments secured him a Fellowship and the vice-presidentship of the Royal Society. He published many works on natural history, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as sermons; but he is best known as the compiler of a "Collection of Voyages," 1702, of an Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of the Arts, entitled "Lexicon Technicum," which may be regarded as the original of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and of a "History of Kent" published in 1709. He died in poverty in the year 1719.
[See "Gentleman's Magazine," 1814; "Rees's Cyclopædia"; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes,"]