John Meyer Harris
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| Residence | 12 Holland Road [or Terrace], Kensington, W | ||||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
ASL Council 1866 Member
ASL Council 1867 Member
House Notes
A4:42 discusses Pim's lecture The Negro at home and abroad; discusses Bunu boy
March 14th 1865. Mr J.M. Harris’s paper – on the Gallinas of Sierra Leone – was referred to Mr Collingwood
April 4 1865. The referees' report on Mr J.M. Harris’s paper – on the Gallinas – was re-referred to Dr Seemann.... Resolved, that Mr Harris’s paper – on the Gallinas of Sierra Leone – be printed in the Memoirs.
December 5 1865. The following papers were fixed for next meeting: ... Harris, J.M. – Gallinas of Sierra Leone ...
January 2 1866. The balloting list having been submitted, it was resolved that ... J. Meyer Harris Esq., Councillor in the place of George E. Roberts Esq., deceased.
Jan 6 1866, Proposed by Mr Harris and seconded by Dr Gibb that a larger room than the Society’s be engaged for the reading of Capt. Pim’s paper.,
Jan 16 1866. The papers referred were as follows, viz.: - ... R.B. Walker – fertility of blacks – to Mr M. Harris
Feb. 1 1866. It was proposed by Mr Vaux, seconded by Mr Harris, that the whole of Capt. Pim’s paper, be read at the evening meeting.
6 Mar 1866, 20 Mar 1866
15 Jan. 1867 Ordered that Capt. Burton’s letter be read at the evening meeting. The same with Mr Meyer Harris’s and Mr Walker’s
5 Nov. 1867,
19 Nov. 1867. New papers were referred as follows: ... Mr Groom Napier – on remarkable mulattoes – to Mr Meyer Harris and Mr S.E. Collingwood
3 Dec 1867 The nomination of the Officers and Council for next year was made by vote or by ballot as follows: ... Council ... Meyer Harris
17 Dec. 1867. Clause [blank] relative to Travelling Secretaries was adopted on the motion of Mr Meyer Harris, seconded by Mr George Harris.
31 Dec. 1867 Reports as follows were adopted and referred to publication for printing: - ... Mr Meyer Harris & Mr S.E. Collingwood – on Groom-Napier – remarkable mulattoes &c
14 Jan. 1868
22 Jan. 1868. Committees were appointed as follows: 1. Finance – Major Owen (ch), Mr Heath (v), Mr M. Harris (Sec.)
18 Feb. 1868 Dr Eveleigh – on government of native tribes – was referred to Mr Meyer Harris. ... On the motion of Mr Brabrook, seconded by Mr Meyer Harris, Major Owen was appointed Deputy Director.
3 Mar 1868 Referees' reports were adopted as follows: ... Mr Meyer Harris and Major Owen on Dr Eveleigh – government of native tribes
16 Jun 1868
Notes From Elsewhere
Merchant.
... certain pecuniary claims against the Liberian Government by one John Meyer Harris for damage and loss said to have been sustained by him through the action of the Liberian Government at various periods between the years 1860 and 1880 ... [from Travel Sketches from Liberia]
And in the mid-1860s, John Meyer Harris, an English businessman operating out of Gallinas on the Sierra Leone-Liberia border, described the costume of the “Boondoo devil” among the Vai as comprising “a mask made of the bark of a tree, and which goes completely over the head and rests on the shoulders.... It has long grass by way of a wig, and a long robe of cloth hangs to it, the feet and legs being also hidden by other cloths pendant from the waist and knees, and over all is a fringe of long grass which completely covers the performer.”[5] Neither Koelle’s book nor Harris’s appear in the book’s literature review or bibliography.
Brighton Jewry has contacts also with Sierra Leone, where, after the suppression of the slave trade, ordinary merchants began to penetrate. In 1855 John Myer Harris, a tailor, left 11 Oriental Place, Brighton, together with his younger brother Abraham, for Sierra Leone.86 Abraham died in May 1859 during a Yellow Fever epidemic. John Myer Harris started trading in the Sherbo estuary and by i860 had prospered sufficiently to open a factory at Sulima in the Gallinas country, formerly one of the principal areas of slave trading.87 ('Factory' was a nineteenth-century word in Africa for a 'trading store'.)
Harris took advantage of this in the disputed area between Sierra Leone and Liberia (now Monrovia). At times he was encouraged by the government, which eventually annexed certain regions to British rule, for which John Myer Harris is esteemed to this day by the inhabitants of the annexed area. His book, Annexations in Sierra Leone and their influence on British Trade with West Africa, was published in 1883 and is of sufficient importance to have been reprinted in 1975.88 Harris's first wife was Boie Sally of the family of the Chief of Juring. Her grand-daughter was Lady Beoku-Betts, wife of a barrister, Sir Ernest (Samuel) Beoku-Betts (1895-1957), who was the first elected member of the Legislative Council and subsequently Speaker of the House of Representatives in Sierra Leone.89 The second wife was reputed to be a native princess, Yana or Jane Tucker, daughter of Chief Thomas Tucker. Her son, John or James Nathaniel Harris, married the daughter of the President of Liberia, Rosie Marie Roberts. Some members of the Harris family moved to Liberia and recently a descendant, William Tolbert, then Chairman of the Organization of African Unity, was assassinated during a coup d'etat. On his return to England, Harris married a London Jewish woman and settled down in Maida Vale. His grandson, Bernard Harris of Hove, discovered the 1883 book, and recollected coloured cousins visiting the family.90 In 1975 he visited Sierra Leone and met no fewer than twenty-five cousins of some degree. Their positions ranged from the president's personal doctor to vice-chairman of a university, and the then mayor of Freetown. The president of Sierra Leone placed his private helicopter at the disposal of Ben Harris to enable him to visit the old factory at Sulima, where he was greeted on arrival by 600 villagers. The Sierra Leone descendants of the Brighton Jewish tailor are proud of their background and their personal contribution to the political and cultural fabric of Sierra Leone.
Publications
External Publications
House Publications
the Gallinas of Sierra Leone Read 2 may 1865
Letter from Liberia A.R. v, JAS p. xcv
Some remarks on the origin, manners, customs and superstitions of the Gallina People of Sierra Leone. 16 Jan 1866 MAS ii, 25-36
Abstract and discussion 16 Jan 1866 AR iv JAS pp lxxxii-lxxxv
