General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> V
Name Prefix:<NPFX> Gov.
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 4B7X-58
Burgess from Charles City Co, VA; member of Continental Congress; signer of the Declaration of Independence; Governor of VA.
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# Note:
Benjamin Harrison was the descendant of a family long distinguished in the history of Virginia. Both his father and grandfather bore the name of Benjamin, and lived at Berkeley, where they owned, and where the family still owns[in 1829], a seat, beautifully situated on the banks of the James River, in full view of City Point, the seaport of Petersburg and Richmond.
The father of Mr. Harrison married the eldest daughter of Mr. Carter, the king's surveyor general, by whom he had six sons and four daughters. Two of the latter, with himself, were, at the same time, during the occurrence of a thunder storm, killed by lightning in the mansion house at Berkeley.
The subject of the present memoir was the eldest son of the preceding, but the date of his birth has not been satisfactorily ascertained. He was a student in the college of William and Mary at the time of his father's death; but, in consequence of a misunderstanding with an officer of the college, he left it before the regular period of graduation, and returned home.
The management of his father's estate now devolved upon him; and though young to be entrusted with a charge so important, and involving responsibilities so weighty, he displayed an unusual share of prudence and judgment.
His ancestors having long been distinguished as political leaders in the province, he was summoned at an early date, even before he had attained to the age required by law, to sustain the reputation which they had acquired. He commenced his political career as a member of the legislature, about the year 1764, a station which he may be said to have held through life, since he was always elected to a seat, whenever his other political employments admitted of his occupying it. As a member of the provincial assembly, Mr. Harrison soon became conspicuous. To strong good sense he united great firmness and decision of character. Besides, his fortune being ample, and his connections by marriage highly respectable, he was naturally marked out as a political leader, in whom general confidence might well be reposed.
The royal government, aware of his influence and respectability, was, at an early day, anxious to enlist him in its favor, and accordingly proposed to create him a member of the executive council in Virginia, a station corresponding to the privy council in England, and one which few would have had the firmness to have declined.
Mr. Harrison, however, though a young man, was not to be seduced from the path of duty by the rank and influence conferred by office. Even at this time, the measures of the British ministry, although not as oppressive as at a later day, were such as neither he nor the patriotic burgesses of Virginia could approve. In opposition to the royal cause, he identified himself with the people, whose rights and liberties he pursued with an ardor which characterized most of the patriots of the revolution.
Passing over the following ten years of Mr. Harrison's life, in which few incidents either of a private or political nature are recorded of him, we arrive at the year 1774, the era of the memorable congress which laid the foundation of American liberty, of which body Mr. Harrison was a member.
From this period until the close of 1777, during nearly every session of congress, Mr. Harrison represented his native state in that distinguished assembly. Our limits forbid us entering into a minute detail of the important services which he rendered his country during his career in the national legislature. As a member of the board of war, and as chairman of that board, an office which he retained until he left congress, he particularly distinguished himself. According to the testimony of a gentleman who was contemporary with him in congress, he was characterized