John Harrison

The following material on John Harrison was extracted from Annals of the Ancestry of Charles Custis Harrison and Ellen Waln Harrison, compiled by their daughter-in-law Mary Harrison. Printed for Private Circulation by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, MCMXXXII. Pp. 15-23. [my additional comments are added in brackets]

"Thomas Harrison, of Stoneraise, and Castle Sowerby, Cumberland County, England, was born about 1640. Stoneraise is in the parish of Westward, two or three miles from Wigton and about ten from Carlisle. The parish of Sowerby, sometimes called Castle Sowerby because of an old fortress there, lies to the north of Westward. In the parish of Sowerby is Graystock and there were Herysons and Harysons in Graystock as far back as 1374. Thomas Harrison was a follower of George Fox, a member of the Religious Society of Friends. His son, Thomas, after living for a number of years in London, returned to Cumberland and bought land in Thurstonfield, not far from Carlisle. This second Thomas's son, also Thomas, continued to live at Thurstonfield and had a large number of children. The eldest born, named Thomas, died when three years old, and the house and lands passed in due course to the second son, John. The fifth son, born August 29, 1741, and also named Thomas, is the one from whom John Harrison was descended. This Thomas Harrison applied to Carlisle Monthly Meeting for a certificate of removal, and in the "Minutes entered at our Monthly Meeting at Carlisle the 20th of 5th Mo. 1763 a Certificate was given at this meeting on behalf of Thomas Harrison directed to Friends in Philadelphia."

Thomas Harrison, then a young man of 22, apparently went to America shortly after the date of this certificate and, introduced to the Society of Friends in Philadelphia by that somewhat formidable document, promptly married the young woman who in later years was to become one of the most celebrated Quaker preachers of her day. The records of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of Friends show that "on Sixth Mo. 21, 1764, Thomas Harrison of Philadelphia, son of Thomas, deceased, of Thurston Field, Cumberland County, Great Britain, was married at the Philadelphia Meeting to Sarah Richards, daughter of Rowland Richards, deceased, of Chester County."

Besides the notoriety of his famous preacher wife, Thomas Harrison was known as an ardent worker for the abolition of slavery and a respected citizen. His sixth son with Sarah Richards was John Harrison, the subject of this biography.

John Harrison was born in Philadelphia, December 17th, 1773. He was apprenticed at an early age to Townsend Speakman, a chemist, later studying for two years in Europe and also under the famous Joseph Priestley, minister, scientist and discoverer of oxygen. John Harrison himself became a noted manufacturing chemist and is often called America's first industrial chemist. He married Lydia Leib, daughter of John George Leib and his wife Dorothy. John & Lydia Harrison had eight children. Their sixth child was George Lieb Harrison, born October 28, 1811 who became a student at Harvard University in 1828, worked at the law office of Joseph R. Ingersoll, admitted to the Bar in 1833, but upon his father's death that same year, he took over his father's business. He was later invited to become a member of the firm of Powers and Weightman, which was then renamed Powers, Weightman and Harrison. His first wife was Sarah Ann Waples, his second wife Letitia Henry Mitchell, the sister of the famous Dr. S. Weir Mitchell.

John Harrison was interested in many things besides his successful business. He was captain of the Sixth Company in the Third Battalion of Philadelphia Militia; he belonged to the "Fish House," being elected a member of that celebrated "Schuylkill Fishing Company of the State in Schuylkill" in 1796, and he was a member of the first Board of Managers of the Franklin Institute. He lived for many years at Priestley Lodge, named in honour of his old friend and former teacher. [Priestly Lodge was located in Kensington, on the west side of Frankford Road, above Palmer, or where the old Kensington Depot was located. There is a painting, by Kennedy, of this mansion house. I will try to get a copy and supply and if permission is granted, put it up.]

Harrison died in 1833. The John Harrison Laboratory of Chemistry of the University of Pennsylvania was erected as a Memorial to him by his grandsons, Charles Custis Harrison, Alfred Craven Harrison and William Welsh Harrison. An interesting portrait of John Harrison, painted by James Peale, is now in the possession of his great-grandson, George L. Harrison."