[Morrison, John / Midleton / Castlemartyr] / [Prior, Matthew].

Poems on Several Occasions by the late Matthew Prior [Including “Memoirs of the Life of Mr.Prior” / Including: “Solomon on the Vanity of the World” / “An Ode Humbly Inscrib’d to the Queen, on the Glorious Success of her Majesty’s Arms, MDCCVI. Written in Imitation of Spenser’s Style” / “Alma, or the Progress of the Mind – In three Cantos” / “Downhall – A Ballad – To the Tune of King John and the Abbott of Canterbury” ].

First and Forurth Edition. Two Volumes (complete set). London, J.R.Tonson and S.Draper and H.Linto / C.Hitch at the Red Lyon and J. Hodges at the Looking-Glass, 1754. Small-Octavo (10,5 cm x 16,5 cm). Volume I [First Edition, printed by Tonson]: [11], 402, [3] pages with two title-pages/ Volume II: [Fourth Edition, printed by C. Hitch and J.Hodges], Frontispiece, LXXII, 356 pages with two full-page copper-engravings by van Gucht (plus engraved Frontispiece). Original Hardcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. With the name “John Morrison” on the titlepage of both Volumes [possibly the 18th century – Architect John Morrison from Midleton, with a connection to Castlemartyr]. These books came subsequently from, the Library of Daniel Conner, Connerville / Bandon / Manch House in which also a set of Buffon, from the library of Richard Boyle Bernard, Dean of Leighlin and MP for Bandon Bridge was included.

Provenance:

John Morrison, Architect, of Midleton, Co. Cork. John Morrison, the father of RICHARD MORRISON and grandfather of WILLIAM VITRUVIUS MORRISON , was in active practice from 1760 or earlier until at least 1785. According to his grandson Dr John Morrison,(1) he came from Midleton, Co. Cork, and was himself the son of an architect; he was ‘as celebrated for his mathematical and scientific as for his architectural abilities’ and ‘realized a handsome fortune by the exercise of his profession, which however he squandered away with the recklessness which characterized the age and province in which he lived’. The anonymous writer of an anecdotal sketch of Richard Morrison in the Irish Builder,(2) gives a slightly different impression: ‘His [Richard’s] father also was an architect – John Morrison or Morris or Morrisy – used indifferently by persons in the locality, according to their social position, the son being sometimes known by a different one to his father’s, cut on a tombstone. It was thought about Castlemartyr, from which John migrated to Dublin, that he changed his name when he changed his route to his final destination. He had the patronage of his neighbouring magnate, Lord Shannon, who some, uncharitably, thought was paternally related to him.’(3) Dr John Morrison’s memoir records that the second Earl of Shannon, and Hon. Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Cloyne (the future Earl Bishop of Derry) were sponsors at the christening of Richard Morrison, who was born in 1767, and that the Earl later found a position for Richard in the Ordnance Department.

In 1760 John Morrison proposed publishing by subscription ‘The Practical Builder’s Architect and Workman’s Assistant’, which was to appear in two volumes. Nothing came of this proposal, but his ‘Essay on the Convenience, Strength and Beauty which should be connected in all private and public buildings’ was published in the Dublin Magazine of September 1764.(4) According to McParland, Morrison charged fees of five percent or six percent if he had to travel, ‘an unusual step in the ambiguous word of contracting and building in provincial Ireland in the 1770s’.(5) Yet although Dr John Morrison claimed in 1843 that ‘Numerous specimens of his taste and professional ability still exist’ in the south of Ireland, the projects for which documentary evidence has been found, seem to have been largely unexecuted.(6)

In 1793 and 1794 a person of this name was a subscriber to the Anthologia Hibernica; as Richard Morrison published his ‘Observations on the Giant’s Causeway’ in that periodical in 1793, it seems at least possible that the subscriber was his father.

John Morrison died in 1802, his wife Elizabeth in 1793. The number of their children is not recorded, but , in addition to Richard, they had at least one daughter, Maria, who died in 1784. These dates are inscribed on the table tomb of a James Barry (d. 1766) and his son James (d.1764) in the graveyard of Ballyoughtera Church of Ireland church in the demesne of Castlemartyr House, Co. Cork.(6) The tomb of early nineteenth-century neo-Classical appearance and the inscription were executed for a son or daughter of John Morrison, very probably for Richard Morrison himself, but the nature of the connection between the Barrys and the Morrisons is not known. [Source: Irish Architectural Archive / Dictionary of Irish Arhitects (720 – 1940)].

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY.

References

(1) John Morrison, MD, ‘Life of the late William Vitruvius Morrison’ in John Weale, ed., Quarterly Papers on Architecture I (1843), 1-2.
(2) IB 29, 15 Dec 1887, 354.
(3) If there is any foundation for this rumour, John Morrison would presumably have been a son of Henry Boyle, 1st Earl of Shannon (1682-1764) and half-brother of Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Shannon (1727-1807).
(4) E. McParland, A. Rowan and A.M. Rowan, ‘The Morrisons, architects’ in A.M. Rowan, ed., The Architecture of Richard Morrison and William Vitruvius Morrison (IAA, 1989), 2.
(5) McParland, op. cit., 1.
(6) Recently discovered documents appear to indicate that Oliver Grace, not Morrison, was the architect of Mitchelstown College (information From Frederick O’Dwyer).
(6) Information from Frank Keohane.

• Keywords: 17th Century – Rare · 18th Century – Rare · Catalogue No.10 – International Literature · Catalogue Ten – International Literature · English Literature – Rare · English Literature of the 17th century · English Literature of the 18th Century · John Morrison Library · New Arrivals · Poetry · Poetry – Rare
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 31233AB

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