• General Notes

  [316552.ftw]
  
  TITL The Harrisons:  Landowners, Adventurers and Politicians
  AUTH Harrison, Timothy Paul        PUBL October 30, 1991
  The Harrisons: Landowners, Adventurers & Politicia   Primary
  MEDI Manuscript
  TEXT QUAY 2
  PLAC ENG; Wakefield, Surry Co., VAThe first Harrison to arrive in America, as far as the reco rds show,  was a man by the name of Benjamin Harrison (I). He must have arrived sometime befo re 1633/34, as on March 15 of that year he was established as clerk of the Royal Council in V irginia. How long he had already been in the colony is not clear, although he would have to h ave been there long enough to have gained sufficient standing to have been given this positio n. The following year, on July 6/7, 1635, records show that he purchased two hundred acres o f land on "Warrisquake" (Watrosquivake  Creek ?) in Isle of Wight. However, he apparently di d not remain there very long, as on May 18, 1637, he was granted six hundred acres in James C ity County at Sandy Point on Chippokes Creek. Benjamin Harrison(I) later went on to becom e a member of the House of Burgesses in 1642, and died in 1648.  There has been a long held b elief that the Harrisons are the descendents of Thomas Harrison, the regicide general who ser ved under Oliver Cromwell, and was executed by King Charles II upon his return to power. Acco rding to this tradition, Thomas Harrison's family fled to Jamestown after his executionin ord er to escape further persecution, with Benjamin Harrison (I) carrying on the family name.   H owever, a closer look at what we know of these two individuals makes this connection impossib le.  First of all Thomas Harrison was born in 1616, only a decade and a half before Benjami n Harrison (I) arrived in Jamestown. Furthermore, at the time of his execution in 1660 for hi s part in the death of King Charles I, Thomas Harrison had no living children. the burial reg ister of St. Annes Cathedral in London (?) records the death of each of his three sons, eac h having died will before his own death. Thus, Thomas Harrison simply could not have been th e father of Benjamin Harrison (I).  Although I have not been able to check the primary source s myself, the relevant secondary sources for this early historical information include J. B . Boddie, Historical Southern Families (Vol. 5) (Redwood City, CA, 1960, pp. 71-76; Stella Pi ckett Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States of America (Baltimore, 1968, pp. 282-29 6.  For more on this fascinating man, see C.H. Firth, "Memoir of Major-General Thomas Harriso n," American Antiquarian Society 8 (1893): 390-464; C. H. Simpkinson, Thomas Harrison: Regici de and Major-General (London, 1905); M. Ashley, Cromwells Generals (London, 1954) especiall y pp. 83-97 and 223-226; and also C.V. Wedgwood, The Trial of Charles I (London, 1964).

Details of Benjamin's family with Mary Stringer