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Richard Henry Major (1818 – 1891) a distinguished lusophile and prominent geographer, was Curator of the Maps Collection at the British Museum, and Secretary of the Hakluyt Society. In 1845 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, being its secretary (1866-1881) and vice-president (1881-84) and in 1854, Fellow of Society of Antiquaries (Cf. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry, by Elizabeth Baigent).
He was particularly interested in the discovery of Australia about which he published three papers, namely, The Discovery of Australia By The Portuguese In 1601five years before the earliest discovery hitherto recorded … London, Printed by J.B. Nichols, 1861 (On the discovery of Australia cf. Des Cowley, European Voyages of Discovery, in «The La Troube Journal», # 41, Autumn 1988, State Library of Victoria).
The book dedicated to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon who had it translated into Portuguese, by the Academic D. José de Lacerda, and publisehd under the title «O Descobrimento da Australia pelos portuguezes em 1601: cinco annos antes do primeiro descobrimento até entáo mencionado», de Richard Henry Major, tradução de D. José de Lacerda, Typographia da Academia, 1863.
Five years later Henry Major published a book on Prince Henry, the Navigator – The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, Surnamed the Navigator, and its Results, with a 2nd. edition in 1877 (there are several recent reprints of this work, vg. published by Thomas Nelson, 1967, and another by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, January 29, 2010).
His pioneer and scholarly study on the discovery of Australia by the Portuguese led to the award by King Peter V of the Knight class of the reformed (1832) Order of the Tower and Sword, Valour, Loyalty and Merit, in July 30th, 1861 (Royal Decree of 30th July 1861, published in D.L. # 196).
The favorable welcome of his book on Prince Henry also made King Louis I to promote his as Officer of the Order of the Tower and Sword in February 1868, by proposal fo the Minister and Secretary of State for Foereign Affairs (Royal Decree of 18th Febraury 1868, published in D.L. # 164).
Again in 1975, King Louis I, awarded him the Order fo St. James, as Knight Commander(Royal Decree 8th April 1875, published in D.G. # 79. Thanks are due to Paulo Estrela – secretary of the Portuguese Phaleristics Academy, for these sources).
The Order of St. James was the first of the ancient military orders to be reformed by the constitutional monarchy, in 1862, as a pure order of merit awarded for «relevant personal merits and services on behalf of Science, Literature and the Arts».
Henry Major also became, in 1873, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Rose, awarded by Emperor Peter II of Brazil and in the following year, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy given by King Victor Emanuel II for his book on the Voyages of the Venetian Brothers N. and A. Zeno (cf. ibidem, Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyentry, por Elizabeth Baigent)..
Henry Major used an armorial bookplate related with Phaleristics, since the arms are encirceld by the Collar of the Order of the Tower and Sword, certainly made after 1861 (cf. F 19539, Franks bequest , catalogue of British and American book plates bequested to the Trustees of the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, by E.R.J. Gambier Howe, Vol. 2, 1903).
