Welcome to the John Harris Society website. An organisation that celebrates the life and work of John Harris (1820 - 1884) : John Harris was one of Cornwall’s most famous sons. He published 15 books of poetry plus an autobiography and wrote 100 hymns, as well as a number of tracts on subjects ranging through slavery, war, alcohol abuse and cruelty to animals, despite the hardness and busyness of his life. It is said that he beat Lord Tennyson to the Tercentenary Shakespeare prize in 1864!   John Harris’s writing is also an excellent primary historical source for life, both in the countryside and the town, in Cornwall in his period.

"The fairest flowers, the richest veins of ore,

The brightest gems, the costliest specimens,

The grandest, greatest, meekest, noblest minds,

Are often shining in this darksome world

Where least expected, and their glory's beams

Remain unnoticed in the general glare."

From the poem Carn Brea written by John Harris in 1865

Discover the life and work of John Harris