Alex,
This is what we have on John H. Would love to know who his parents are.
He did have two brothers - note below and would have ancestors likely in
Yorkshire ENG. Let us know how you connect to this line. Fascinating
stuff! Perhaps some of these refs will help you find his parents. Please
keep us posted of your progress!
becky
First Generation
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1. HARRISON - 3999. Residence ENG.
Children:
2 i. John "Longitude" HARRISON - 3937
ii. Benjamin HARRISON - 3938; Born 1694 in Feuby, Yorkshire, ENG.
Residence ENG. Sources216.
This book claims that this Ben is the ancestor of Ben H the signer and
Wm. Henry Harrison, Pres.216
3 iii. Thomas HARRISON - 3929
Second Generation
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2. John "Longitude" HARRISON - 3937. Son of HARRISON - 3999. Born 24 Mar
1693 in Feuby, Yorkshire, ENG. Died 24 Mar 1776 in Red Lion Square, London,
ENG. Occupation Inventor. Residence Yorkshire; London, ENG. Sources216, 494.
Invented chronometer, gridiron, and pendulum for clocks. His first
completed pendulum clock was in 1713 before the age of 20. The clock is
unique because it is constructed entirely of wood and is on display at The
Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' one-room museum at Guildhall in London.
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest
Scientific Problem of His Time. 494
p. 62-63
"John 'Longitude' Harrison was born March 24, 1693, in the county of
Yorkshire, the eldest of five children. His family, in keeping with the
custom of the time, dealt out names so parsimoniously that it is impossible
to keep track of all the Henrys, Johns, and Elizabeths without pencil and
paper. To wit, John Harrison served as the son, grandson, brother, and
uncle of one Henry Harrison or another, while his mother, his sister, both
his wives, his only daughter, and two of his three daughters-in-law all
answered to the name Elizabeth.
His first home seems to have been on the the estate, called Nostell Priory,
of a rich landowner who employed the elder Harrison as a carpenter and
custodian. Early in John's life -- perhaps around his fourth birthday, not
later than his seventh - the family moved, for reasons unknown, sixty miles
away to the small Lincolnshire village of Barrow, also called
Barrow-on-Humber because it sat on the south bank of that river.
In Barrow, young John learned woodworking from his father. No one knows
where he learned music, but he played the viol, rang and tuned the church
bells, and eventaully took over as choirmaster at the Barrow parish church.
(Many years later, as an adjunct ot the 1775 publication explaining his
timekeepers, A Desription Concerning Such Mechanism ..., Harrison would
expound his radical theory on the musical scale.)"
p. 67
"Forthright in his personal encounters, Harrison proposed marriage to
Elizabeth Barrel, and she became his wife on August 30, 1718. Their son,
John, was born the following summer. Then Elizabeth fell ill and died in
the spring before the boy turned seven.
....
The parish records show that he found a new bride, ten years younger,
within six months of Elizabeth's death. Harrison wed his second wife,
Elizabeth Scott, on November 23, 1726. At the start of their fifty years
together
they had two children --- William, born in 1728, who was to become his
father's champion and right-hand man, and Elizabeth, born in 1732, about
whom nothing is known save the date of her baptism, December 21. John, the
child of Harrison's first marriage, died when he was only eighteen."
p. 126
"Two compelling likenesses of John Harrison, both made during his lifetime,
survive into ours. The first is a formal portrait in oils by Thomas King,
completed sometime between October 1765 and March 1766. The other is an
engraving by Peter Joseph Tassaert, from 1767, obviously taken from the
painting, which it copies in almost every detail. "
p. 147
"In January 1772, William wrote the king a poignant letter covering the
history of his father's hardships with the Board of Longitude and the Royal
Observatory. William asked politely, beseechingly, if the new Watch (H-5)
might 'be lodged for a certain time in the Observatory at Richmond, in
order to ascertain and manifest its degree of excellence.' The king than
interviewed William at length at Windsor Casle. In a later account of this
pivotal meeting, written in 1835 by William's son, John, the king is
reported to have muttered under his breath, 'These people have been cruelly
treated.' Aloud he promised William, 'By God, Harrison, I will see you
righted!'"
p. 152
When John Harrison died, on March 24, 1776, exactly eighty-three years to
the day after his birth in 1693, he held matyr status among clockmakers.
For decades he had stood apart, virtually alone, as the only person in the
world seriously pursuing a timekeeper solution to the longitude problem.
Then suddently, in the wake of Harrison's success with H-4, legions of
watchmakers took up the special calling of marine timekeeping. ... Indeed,
some modern horologists claim that Harrison's work facilitated England's
mastery over the oceans, and thereby led to the creation of the British
Empire --- for it was by dint of the chronometer that Britannia ruled the
waves."
He first married Elizabeth BARREL - 10042, 30 Aug 1718. Died 1726.
Sources494.
They had the following children:
i. John HARRISON - 10043; Born 1719. Died 1737. Sources494.
He second married Elizabeth SCOTT - 10044, 23 Nov 1726. Born About 1703.
Sources494.
They had the following children:
4 i. William HARRISON - 10045
ii. Eilizabeth HARRISON - 10046; Born 1732. Christen 21 Dec . Sources494.
3. Thomas HARRISON - 3929. Son of HARRISON - 3999. Born 1695 in Feuby,
Yorkshire, ENG. Residence Yorkshire, ENG. Sources216.
Thomas is said to be the younger brother of John and Benjamin Harrison.
His six sons all came to America after the death of their parents and
settled in Maryland. They all enlisted in the Revolutionay War where only
John (Capt) and Thomas (Colonel) survived. The other brothers are said to
have left families but descendents are not known.
He married Hannah MORRISON - 3930. Residence ENG. Sources216.
They had the following children:
5 i. John HARRISON Capt. - 3931
ii. Benjamin HARRISON - 3932; Born Circa 1715 in ENG. Died in
Revolutionary War. Residence ENG > MD. Sources216.
iii. Thomas HARRISON Jr., Col. - 3933; Born Circa 1715 in ENG. Died in
D.s.p. Residence ENG > MD. Sources216.
Col. Thomas was a shrewd businessman and invested in lands in the Valley
of Virginia. He left his property to his nephew, Thomas, son of Capt John
Harrison.216
iv. Samuel HARRISON - 3934; Born Circa 1715 in ENG. Died in Revolutionary
War. Residence ENG > MD. Sources216.
v. Daniel HARRISON - 3935; Born Circa 1715 in ENG. Died in Revolutionary
War. Residence ENG > MD. Sources216.
vi. James HARRISON - 3936; Born Circa 1715 in ENG. Died in Revolutionary
War. Residence ENG; MD. Sources216.
Third Generation
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4. William HARRISON - 10045. Son of John "Longitude" HARRISON - 3937 &
Elizabeth SCOTT - 10044. Born 1728. Sources494.
Became his father's champion and right-hand man.
Children:
i. John HARRISON - 10047
5. John HARRISON Capt. - 3931. Son of Thomas HARRISON - 3929 & Hannah
MORRISON - 3930. Born Circa 1715 in ENG. Residence ENG; MD; Botetourt Co.
VA; SC. Sources216.
He married MALONE - 3939. Residence MD. Sources216.
They had the following children:
6 i. Thomas HARRISON - 3940
ii. Samuel HARRISON - 3941
iii. John HARRISON - 3942
iv. Benjamin HARRISON - 3943
v. Daniel HARRISON - 3944
vi. James HARRISON - 3945
Reference Note 216
A Pioneer History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri by William S. Bryan &
Robert Rose. Publ. by Bryan & Co., St. Louis, MO. Abstract IN Harrison
Heritage Dec. 1986, Vol. VI no. 4.
Reference Note 494
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest
Scientific Problem of His Time. Author: Dava Sobel, Walker Publishing
Company, Inc. - U.S., 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, Thomas Allen
& Son Canada, Limited, Markham, Ontario, 1995
ISBN 0-8027-1312-2(hc)
Pertinent Refs from the Bibliography:
Betts, Jonathan. "Harrison". London: National Maritime Museum, 1993.
Gould, Rupert T. "John Harrison and His Timekeeprs" London: National
Maritime Museum, 1978. (Reprinted from "The Mariner's Mirro, Vol. XXI, No.
2, April 1935).
Hobden, Heather, and Hobden, Mervyn. "John Harrison and the Problem of
Longitude" Lindoln, England: Cosmic Elk, 1988.
Laycock, William. "The Lost Science of John 'Longitude' Harrison" Kent,
England: Brant Wright, 1976.
Quill, Humphrey. "John Harrison, the Man Who Found Longitude" London:
Baker, 1966.
Quill, Humphrey, "John Harrison, Copley Medalist, and the 20,000 (pound)
Longitude Prize" Sussex: Antiquarian Horological Society, 1989.
Whittle, Eric A. "The Inventor of the Marine Chronometer: John Harrison of
Foulby" Wakefield, England: Wakefield Historical Publications, 1984.
Index
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BARREL, Elizabeth - 10042, spouse of 2
HARRISON, - 3999 1
HARRISON, Benjamin - 3932, child of 3
HARRISON, Benjamin - 3938, child of 1
HARRISON, Benjamin - 3943, child of 5
HARRISON, Daniel - 3935, child of 3
HARRISON, Daniel - 3944, child of 5
HARRISON, Eilizabeth - 10046, child of 2
HARRISON, James - 3936, child of 3
HARRISON, James - 3945, child of 5
HARRISON, John "Longitude" - 3937 2
HARRISON, John - 10043, child of 2
HARRISON, John - 10047, child of 4
HARRISON, John - 3942, child of 5
HARRISON, John Capt. - 3931 5
HARRISON, Samuel - 3934, child of 3
HARRISON, Samuel - 3941, child of 5
HARRISON, Thomas - 3929 3
HARRISON, Thomas - 3940 6
HARRISON, Thomas Jr., Col. - 3933, child of 3
HARRISON, William - 10045 4
MALONE, - 3939, spouse of 5
MORRISON, Hannah - 3930, spouse of 3
SCOTT, Elizabeth - 10044, spouse of 2
The HARRISON GENEALOGY REPOSITORY
Becky Bass Bonner 8209 Canna Lane, Oklahoma City, OK 73132
Josephine Lindsay Bass 216 Beach Park Lane, Cape Canaveral, FL 32920
email: [email protected] OR [email protected]
WWW: http://rentsv1.ouhsc.edu/rbonner/harintro.htm
At 11:45 PM 11/17/97 -0500, Alex Luck wrote:
>Dear Friends,
>
> Does anybody know of a genealogy for John "Longitude" HARRISON, b. 24 Mar
>1693 in Yorkshire, the inventor of the chronometer that made possible the
>calculation of longitude? Family legend has it that my HARRISON's are
>descended from him. I haven't been able to make the connection, but I'd
>like to try and see if maybe I can work forward from him.
>
> Thanks, ...Alex Luck
>
>[email protected]
>
>
>
Becky Bass Bonner Email: [email protected]
Home of the *HARRISON* Repository
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~harrisonrep/
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Data Managed by me and my mom Josephine Lindsay Bass ([email protected])