CONTINUED IN MARCH 1982
MARY HARRISON - (1694-1781) was the wife of Robert Cravens,
Sr. (1696-1762), as written in the Cravens Line, Part I.
She was born the 25th day of May, 1694, at Oyster Bay, Long Island,
N. Y., and died in 1781 in Augusta County, Virginia (Oyster Bay
Town Records, Vol. II - 1691-1704, p. 390 and Augusta
County Records, Staunton, Va.)
Mary Harrison (14) was the fourth child of Isaiah Harrison (1),
the immigrant, and his first wife, Elizabeth (Wright) Harrison.
Her childhood was spent at Oyster Bay and Smithtown, Long Island,
and in 1720, she removed, with her father and his second wife,
Abigail (Smith) Harrison to "Maiden Plantation", Sussex
on the Delaware. There she met and married Robert Cravens, Sr.
in 1721.
I. ISAIAH HARRISON - (1666-1738), the immigrant ancestor,
arrived in America and settled at Oyster Bay, Long Island, N.
Y. in about 1687, where his name first appears on the Town Records
on January 2nd of that year, coming from Dublin, Ireland on the
boat "Spotted Calf. " He is thought to have been born
in the city of Chester in England, and as refugee, sailed from
that port or the more modern, nearby Liverpool, which was rapidly
supplanting Chester as a point of departure, due to the silting
up of the River Dee. Many other Protestants sailed from this point
on ''The Pied Cow" about this same time.
Isaiah Harrison's father was Thomas Harrison, D. D., (16191682),
former Chaplain to Gov. Berkeley at Jamestown, Virginia, and a
native of Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire, England, who
died an Independent or Congregational Minister of the gospel in
Dublin, Ireland in 1682. Rev. Thomas Harrison married first in
1648/9, Dorothy, daughter of Samuel Symonds in Massachusetts,
who died in 1653-59. He married second Katherine, daughter
of Edward Bradshaw, mother of Isaiah, in 1659/60, in England.
(See further record.)
Richard Harrison, 1st, - b. ca. 1595; m. ---;
Issue:
In the County of Durham, just to the south of the old Roman Wall,
the estate of Byermoor descended in 1566 to the heirs of Richard
Hodshon, who's sister married William Harrison of Wickham. The
whole tenure was re-united by a purchase in the Harrison
family, and in 1616, William Harrison (F-2-1), son of
William end Agnes Harrison (F-2), died siezed of Byermoor:
- "Containing a messuage of a hundred acres of arable,
as many of meadow, twice as much pasture, 40 acres of woodland
and two hundred of moor, held by the 20th part of a Knight's
service, leaving William Harrison of Byermoor, Gent., his son
and heir. "
William Harrison (F-2-1), above, inherited one fourth
of the estate in 1566. He was buried November 9, 1616,
and his administration granted to his son, Richard Harrison,
(F-2-1-1) 14 December, 1616. His wife was Margery,
the daughter of James Rowe, and was living aged 66, in 1606. This
shows that there were early Harrisons of genteel blood in Durham
and adjacent counties, and that the oldest lines of descent are
found represented by Arms emblazoning the Golden Eagle.
The pedigrees of the Harrisons of Cayton (Eaton), County of York,
appears in the "Visitations of Yorkshire" in 1612.
This pedigree begins with Thomas Harrison, who died about 1595,
(F-3), son of John Harrison (E) and his wife, Margaret, Lord
Mayor of Yorke in 1575 and 1592, and continues in a direct line
through 1666, the year of the birth of Isaiah Harrison, the immigrant
ancestor of the Harrison Line in America, from whom we are directly
descended. The pedigree progresses through John Harrison (G-1),
who died in 1595, son of Thomas above, to son Rowland Harrison
(H-2), born circa 1550; to Richard Harrison (J-3), born
circa 1595;tO Reverend Thomas Harrison, (K-1), born in 1619,
and died in 1682, the father of Isaiah Harrison.
p. 208
Rev. Thomas Harrison and his first wife, Dorothy, had issue:
Due to loss of a vast treasure of records of Ireland's early English
records, little is known of Thomas Harrison's daughters. The marriage
to Dorothy is recorded in the regular Parish register.
From Massachusetts in 1650, Rev. Harrison returned with his family
to England where he succeeded Dr. Goodwin in his church at St.
Dunstans-in-The-East, London. After remaining in
London for a few years, he removed to Bromborough Hall, Warrall,
Cheshire, and in 1655, accompanied Henry Cromwell (son of the
Prosector) to Ireland, when the latter went there as lord-deputy.
During this time he resided with Cromwell's family. It appears
unlikely that he was accompanied by his wife on this trip to Dublin.
She may have remained at Bromborough Hall in Cheshire, where she
died sometime between 1653 and 1659. ',;
Upon the Restoration, Rev. Harrison returned to Chester,; where
he preached to large congregations in the Cathedral. Following
the passing of the "Act of Uniformity" in 1662, he settled
permanently in Dublin, and founded there a flourishing dissenting
church. ,'
Bromborough Hall, his old home prior to his first residence in
Dublin, is situated about eleven miles from Chester on the River
Mersey, and immediately across the river from Liverpool, over
which city it commands an interesting view. It was purchased by
Edward Bradwhaw, the father of Thomas Harrison's second wife,
Katherine, in 1668 and at his death in 1671, it descended to his
son James Bradshaw. (History of Chester - Vol. II, pp. 428-429,
- by Thomas Helsby.)
Rev. Harrison's return to Chester was followed in a short time
by his second marriage. Disclosed by the registers of Saint Peters
church, Chester under date of February 28, 1659-60:
"Mr. Thomas Harrison, Doctor of Divinity and Miss
Katherine Bradshaw, spinster, [were] married. "
At this time she was twenty-three years of age as disclosed
by the registers - "10 Septr. 1637: Katherine Bradshaw
ye daughter of Mr. Edward Bradshaw, Mercer & sheriff of Chester,
was baptized. "
Rev. Harrison continued as a resident of Cheshire as late as 1672,
in which year his name appears as "Thomas Harrison of Chester.
" in a list of non Conformists Clergymen licensed to preach,
his name being listed under "Place General Denominations,
Independent. " (Calendar of State Paper's Domestic 1672,
p. 575. )
p. 210
HARRISON HERITAGE DECEMBER 1981
HARRISONS IN ENGLAND
THOMAS HARRISON, D. D. - (1619-1682), son of Richard
i
Harrison, 1st (J-3), and the father of Isaiah, the American immigrant, was born in 1619, and died in 1682 in Dublin, Ireland. Although Thomas first came to America he did not remain very long, therefore, Isaiah was the first of the name to settle permanently in this country.
A native of Kingston-Upon-Hull, known as Hull, England, Thomas Harrison was of Yorkshire parentage, with residence in London, and was descended from the Durham family of Harrisons, entitled to bear the Yorkshire (London) Arms. He came from the same family as the line of Alderman and Burgess of the city of Hull, which was granted a charter by Edward I, in 1299, thus originated his right by inheritance to bear Arms.
In 1381, Edward III granted the Burgess power to choose a mayor, but it was not until 1576 that the present city was incorporated. In 1511, Robert Harrison, and in 1537, John Harrison were the Mayors. Among the Alderman were John Harrison, 1548; John Harrison 1576; Christopher Harrison, 1593; and Thomas Harrison in 1687. (History of Kingston-Upon-Hull. )
A curious sepulchural brass in memory of John Harrison, the mayor of 1537, who died in 1545, is yet in the church of Saint Mary. His son, John Harrison, the Alderman of 1548, died in 1550, leaving a will, naming wife, Elizabeth and established Harrison's Hospital of Chapel Lane, the first charitable institution founded in Hull after the Reformation.
Rev. Thomas Harrison was an intimate of the Cromwell family and previously Chaplain of the early Jamestown Colony of Virginia during Governor Berkeley's first term in 1645-1652. He arrived in Virginia before 1640 and qualified as the minister of the Elizabeth River Parish. (Henings Statutes At Large, Vol. I, p. 242.) The same year the Sewalls Point Church agreed to pay him 100 lbs. sterling annually as long as he occupied the pulpit. He used his influence against the Puritans, who were numerous on the South side of the James, but following the second Indian massacre, April 18, .1644, turned Puritan himself, and in 1648, after refusing to read the Book of Common Prayer, or Adminster the Sacrements, abondoned his ministrial office. (Institutional History of Virginia in The Seventeenth Century - by Philip A. Bruce, Vol. I, pp. 132-149 & 166; Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, by Lyon H. Tyler, Vol. I, p. 253.)
In 1648/49, Rev. Harrison removed to New England where he married
his first wife, Dorothy Symonds (Baptized November 9, 1619), daughter
of Samuel Symonds of Ipswich (1595-1678), Deputy Governor
of Massachusetts, 1638 and a native of Great Zeldham, Essex County,
England. (Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Mass. -
by D. W. Hoyt, p. 598; and The Pioneers of Mass., by C. H. Pope,
p. 445.)
His second settlement m Dublin was in 1672, or shortly thereafter, by which time he had been disassociated from the state church eight or nine years. He obtained his license as an Independent Clergyman following the King's lifting of the operation of the Code. With the rise of the Catholic clement under James II, there was little hope for any former followers of Cromwell, or his children. Having been so closely allied with the Cromwell party, his fortunes were doubtless depleted by the time Isaiah came to America.
Rev. Thomas Harrison died in 1682, in Dublin, Ireland - "Amidst general mourning. " "He was a complete gentleman", says Calamy, "much courted for his conversation. " He was the author of several works, among them "Old Jacobs Account Cast Up."
"A funeral Sermon for Lady Susannah Reynolds, 1654"
"Threni Hibernici, or Ireland Sympathizing With England and Scotland in a Sad Lamentation For The Loss of Their Josiah", a sermon preached at Christ Church, Dublin, on the death of Oliver Cromwell, London in 1659, dedicated to Richard, Lord Protector. He left a valuable library. (Dictionary of National Biography - Vol. IX, p. 41, 1908. )
He left a will recorded in the same year (1682), but it was destroyed
in the courts' fire of Public Records office of Ireland in the
late rebellion of 1922, along with other records of his family.
Rev. Thomas Harrison and his 2nd wife, Katherine Bradshaw had among others, according to an entry record in St. Peter's Church,Chester, the following:
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HARRISON HERITAGE (ISSN 0740-9001) was a family genealogical quarterly. |
Many thanks to Melody Deocampo for transcribing this issue.
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Last Updated: 4 December 1999
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Becky Bonner E-Mail Address: [email protected]