Memoir of John Murray
John Murray to John Wilson Croker, 3 May 1821
I beg leave most respectfully to state, for the information
of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that I have paid to Captain W. E. Parry the sum of One Thousand
![]()
| 100 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY | |
![]()
Guineas for the entire copyright of his ‘Journal of the late Voyage for the
Discovery of a North-West Passage,’ and also for the exclusive
right of first publication on that subject, which I was assured their Lordships
had vested in me and would secure to Captain Parry. That I
have further been at a considerable additional expense in procuring the
necessary and suitable charts, maps, and other engravings, and in printing the
Work with a view in all respects to render its appearance not unworthy of their
Lordships’ “Authority,” with which the imprint has been
officially honoured; and that I have used every means in my power to effect the
speedy publication of this Work. I beg you, Sir, further to state to their
Lordships that I now find, with astonishment and mortification, that all my
expense and labour will terminate most probably in loss and disappointment, in
consequence of the unexpected and, as I conceive, illegal publication of another account of the same
Voyage, by Mr. Alexander Fisher, who
accompanied the expedition in quality of Surgeon on board H.M.S. Griper. I therefore throw myself on the protection of
their Lordships, and solicit such remedy as the case may appear to require, and
their Lordships may be disposed in their wisdom to grant me.
Alexander Fisher (d. 1838)
Naval surgeon on William Parry's polar expedition; he published
A
Journal of a Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (1821).
Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855)
Admiral in the Royal Navy and arctic explorer; he was the author of
Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a north-west Passage from the Atlantic to the
Pacific (1821).
