John Harris – Timeline

1820              Born 14 October at Bolenowe, near Camborne, Cornwall.

1826/27         Started a basic formal education when about six or seven years old.

1829               Left school just after his ninth birthday to start work. For a few months on a local farm, then in the tin streams in Forest Moor.

1830               Started work on his tenth birthday on surface at Dolcoath Mine.

1833               At the age of thirteen he started work underground at Dolcoath Mine.

1845               John Harris married Christiana Jane Rule (of Troon) at Camborne Church on 11 September.

1846               Their daughter Jane was born in Troon.

1849               Their daughter Lucretia was born in Troon.

1853               John’s first book was published: Lays from the Mine, the Moor, and the Mountain.

1855               Lucretia died on 23 December after a short illness, aged six years and five months. She was buried in the graveyard at Treslothan Church, near Camborne..

1857               Their son James Howard was born in Troon John was appointed a Scripture Reader at Falmouth, enabling him to escape the toil of hard-rock mining. The family moved to Falmouth in the autumn.

1860               Their son John Alfred was born at Falmouth.

1864               Harris won the Shakespeare Tercentenary Prize.

1879               Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

1882               Merited a 600-word entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.

1884               John died on 7 January at his home at 85 Killigrew Street, Falmouth. He was buried at Treslothan Churchyard.