CHAPTER IV
THE SONS OF John3 Harrison - James4 and Richard4 HARRISON
By Abner Harrison of West Point MS
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After the death of John' Harrison, Sarah Harrison evidently left matters in the hands of the executors and rented the Halifax plantation to tenants, since she and the children returned to her parents at Daniel's Mill in Caroline. By March, 1761, James1, then 13, and Andrew1, about I 1, were enrolled in Donald Robertson's school in upper King and Queen County by March, 1761. This school was one of the finest in pre-Revolution Virginia. The Harrison boys1 classmates include Edmund Pendleton and James Madison.
Shortly after her arrival at her parent's home, the Daniels, Sarah Harrison, and the younger Harrisons moved to Nut Bush in June, 1761. James1 and Andrew1 remained in Henderson's school. Nut Bush was the home of a number of Sarah Harrison's relatives. Her two brothers, James and John Williams Daniel, had moved to the community the preceding year, and other relatives there included her uncle, Samuel Henderson, and cousin, Judge John Williams and their families.
John Daniel IV died in August, 1762, and Samuel Henderson became surrogate grandfather/guardian for the Harrison children. He established a school, with tutor in residence in his home, for his 11 children, and hired another tutor to teach French. A dancing master came by periodically.
The Harrisons, the Hendersons, and the Williams attended St. John's Episcopal Church, located near Judge John Williams1 home. The judge was Mrs. Henderson's nephew, and was also law partner of Ruchard Henderson, the Henderson's son. Another cousin, Joseph Williams, owned the Nut Bush store.
Records on James1 Harrison for the period 1762-1772 have been lost. One genealogist states that he attended William and Mary, but the college records are very incomplete for this period, and his name does not appear on the fragments that have survived. Meynard records that James1 and his cousin, Joseph Williams, clerked at the Nut Bush store at some point during this period. Williams married Rebecca Lanier in 1772 and went into partnership with her brother, Robert Lanier. They moved to Surry County, NC, 30 miles west of Nut Bush, opened two stores, and hired James and Richard Harrison to operate them.
In October 1772, the two sold the land in Pittsylvania County, VA, that they had inherited from their father; Mrs. Harrison relinquished her dower rights to the property, and Captain Anthony Hampton and his son Wade appeared in Pittsylvania court the following April to give their oaths. James1 then bought 300 acres in Surry County, NC. He was engaged to Elizabeth Hampton, Captain Wade Hampton's daughter.
After a trip to New Bern with Wade Hampton to purchase
supplies for the Lanier-Williams stores and for the elder Hampton
brothers, who were Indian traders, young Harrison returned by
way of Nut Bush, where Captain Anthony Hampton and Samuel Henderson
signed the marriage bond for James4 and Elizabeth Hampton.
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