1 OF 2 
William Harper
1 of 2 portraits by William Denune
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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William Harper
by Sir Robert Strange, after William Denune
mezzotint, (1745)
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D6562
Artistsback to top
- William Denune (circa 1712-1750). Artist or producer associated with 2 portraits.
- Sir Robert Strange (1721-1792), Line engraver. Artist or producer associated with 25 portraits, Sitter in 3 portraits.
Events of 1745back to top
Current affairs
Second Jacobite Rebellion: the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie') lands in Scotland and proclaims his father king. Jacobite forces take Edinburgh and march into England as far as Derby but are forced to turn back due to lack of support.The song later to become the British national anthem, God Save the King, is first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in a setting by Thomas Arne.
Art and science
William Hogarth completes the six paintings of Marriage-à-la-Mode, his satirical take on upper-class eighteenth-century society.West towers of Westminster Abbey are completed
Satirical writer Jonathan Swift dies.
International
War of the Austrian Succession: the French army defeat Austrian, Dutch and British forces under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy.Madame de Pompadour becomes mistress to Louis XV of France.
Principle of the Leyden jar is discovered by German physicist, Ewald Georg von Kleist.
Artist Giovanni Batista Piranesi publishes the first of his Vedute (Views); a celebrated series of etchings of Rome.
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Winston Leyland
13 August 2017, 23:19
The Rev. William Harper, was a Scottish Jacobite in 1745 and wrote the 51 page pamphlet, "The Advice of a friend, to the Army and People of Scotland. To which is added, a letter to the Archbishop of York: Humbly offering to his Grace's Solution some Doubts and Scrubles [sic] suggested by his late Speech to the Grand Meeting of the County of York, called to subscribe an Association for supporting the German Government in England." [see listing of this pamphlet in BL where it is ascribed to William Harper] I own a copy of this pamphlet which is only in BL and Rylands in the British Isles, and three libraries in USA. It was printed both in Edinburgh and Aberdeen and is obviously opposed to the Hanoverian Pretender.
Winston Leyland
16 August 2017, 18:31
Further information to what I already sent: The Rev. William Harper was born in Kirkwall where he ministered as a Scottish Episcopal priest before transferring to Edinburgh where he served as a non juring priest at Old St. Paul's Church. He died in Edinburgh 19 Dec. 1765. See the book "A Jacobite Stronghold of the Church (Old St. Paul's, Edinburgh)", by Mary E. Ingram, R. Grant & Son, Edinburgh 1907). In his pamphlet of 1745 he called upon his fellow Scots to honour their natural Sovereign [King James VIII, Jacobite monarch, 1701-1766, after the death of his father King James VII] and the Prince Regent, [Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788).[see pp.3-4 of his work previously cited: ("The Advice of a Friend to the Army and People of Scotland" (Aberdeen 1745).]