Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/114

90 HARRINGTON, Samuel Maxwell, jurist, b. in Dover, Del., 5 Feb., 1803 : d. in Philadelphia, 28 Nov., 1865. He was graduated at Washington col- lege, Charlestown, Md., in 1823, with the first honors of his class, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was appointed secretary of state of Dela- ware in 1829, and again in 1830, and in the follow- ing year was selected to fill a vacancy on the bench of the state supreme court, and became its chief justice, holding the office until the court was united with the superior court. In the latter he sat as associate justice until 1855, when he was again made chief justice. In 1857 he succeeded to the chancellorship, the highest judicial office in the state. In 1849 he had been placed at the head of a commission to revise and codify the laws, and received a vote of thanks from the legislature. During the civil war Judge Harrington was a staunch supporter of the government, and did much to strengthen the administration of Mr. Lin- coln. In 1854 he received the honorary degree of LL. D. He is the author of " Reports of the Su- preme Court of Delaware " (3 vols., Dover, 1837-'44).

HARRINGTON, Timothy, clergyman, b. in Waltham, Mass., in 1715; d. in Lancaster, Worcester co., Mass., 18 Dec., 1795. He was graduated at Harvard in 1737, studied theology, and settled in 1741 as pastor of a Congregational church in Lower Ashuelot, now Swanzey, N. H., whence he was driven by the Indians in 1747. The following year he was called to the church at Lancaster, where he remained until his death. It is related of him that having been in the habit, before the Revolutionary war, of praying in his pulpit for the health of &ldquo;our excellent King George,&rdquo; he so far forgot himself on one occasion, after the Declaration of Independence, as to lapse into the old form, but immediately added, &ldquo;O Lord! I mean George Washington.&rdquo; He was one of the most pure and gentle-hearted among New England pastors, a scholar of remarkable attainments, and possessed of warm affections. He was accused of being a loyalist, and was undoubtedly opposed to the Whigs', being of opinion that separation would ruin the colonies. In 1777 a list of proscribed persons was posted up in town-meeting, to which his name had been added on motion of some one who disliked him. He thereupon arose, &ldquo;his hairs touched with silver, and his benignant features kindling into a glow of honest indignation,&rdquo; and, baring his bosom before his people, exclaimed, &ldquo;Strike, strike here with your daggers! I am a true friend to my country.&rdquo;

HARRIOT, or HARRIOTT, Thomas, mathematician, b. in Oxford, Eng., in 1560 : d. in London, 2 July, 1621. After studying at St. Mary's hall, Oxford, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1579, he became tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh, who in 1585 appointed him geographer to the second expedition to Virginia with Sir Richard Grenville. He remained there about two years. On his return he resumed his mathematical studies, and afterward received a yearly pension of £120 from Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who was distinguished for his patronage of men of science. Harriot's death was caused by a cancer in the lip, occasioned, it is supposed, by his habit of holding in his mouth instruments of brass. Prom papers discovered in 1784, it would appear that he had either procured a telescope from Holland, or divined the construction of that instrument, and that he coincided in point of time with Galileo in discovering the spots on the sun's disk. On his return from this country he published " A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, etc. (London, 1588). It was afterward translated into Latin, French, and German, and is contained in volume iii. of Hakluyt's " Voyages." After his death his "Artis Analytical Praxis " was published (London, 1631). In this he discloses the important algebraical discovery that every equation may be regarded as formed by the product of as many simple equations as there are units in the number expressing its order. Besides this, Harriot made several changes in the notation of algebra.

HARRIS, Caleb Fiske, book-collector, b. in Warwick, R. I., 9 March, 1818 ; d. in Moosehead lake. Me., 2 Oct., 1881. He was educated at the Academy of Kingston, R. I., and at Brown uni- versity, but was not graduated. He engaged in the commission business in New York, and after 1856 in Providence, R. I., till the civil war, when he re- tired with a fortune. He subsequently developed a taste for the collection of the works of American poets and books bearing on early American history. Mr. Harris published an " Index to American Poetry and Plays in the Collection of C. Fiske Harris " (1874), which contained references to 4,129 separate works. Of these, 1,000 were part of a simi- lar collection that had been begun by Albert G. Greene. William Cullen Bryant, in a letter to Mr. Harris, said : " Your work has amazed me by show- ing what multitudes of persons on our side of the Atlantic have wasted their time in writing verses in our language." Mr. Harris and his wife were drowned in Moosehead lake by the upsetting of a boat. His collection, which had increased to over 5,000 volumes, was bought by his cousin, Henry B. Anthony, and was bequeathed by the latter to Brown university. A complete catalogue, with notes and sketches of Albert G. Greene, Mr. Harris, and Henry B. Anthony, was made by the Rev. John G. Stockbridge (Providence, 1886).

HARRIS, Chapin A., dentist, b. in Pompey, Onondaga co., N. Y., in 1806; d. in Baltimore, Md., in 1860. He studied medicine, and settled in Ohio, but afterward removed to Baltimore, where he practised dentistry until his death. He founded Baltimore dental college (chartered in 1839), and was for some time its professor of dental surgery. He edited the " American Journal of Dental Sci- ence " from its establishment in 1839 till 1858, and was a contributor to other dental and medical journals. He is the author of " Principles and Practice of Dental Surgery" (Baltimore, 1839); " Characteristics of the Human Teeth " (Baltimore, 1841) ; "Diseases of the Maxillary Sinus " (Phila- delphia, 1842) ; " Dictionary of Dental Science " (1849) ; and has edited " Fox's Natural History and Diseases of the Human Teeth," with additions (1846 ; 2d ed., Philadelphia, 1855).

HARRIS, Charles, lawyer, b. in England in 1772 ; d. in Georgia in March, 1827. He came to Georgia in 1788, studied law in Savannah, was ad- mitted to the bar, and attained high distinction in his profession. He was twice elected to the judge- ship of his circuit, but declined on both occasions, and on the retirement of Gov. Milledge from the U. S. senate in 1809 the place was tendered to him by both parties and was declined. Harris county, in Georgia, was named in his honor.

HARRIS, David Bullock, soldier, b. at Frederick's Hall, Louisa co., Va., 28 Sept., 1814 ; d. near Petersburg, Va., 10 Oct., 1864. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1833, entered the 1st artillery, and, after serving a year, became assistant professor of engineering at West Point. He resigned from the army in 1835, and during several years thereafter was employed as a civil engineer on the James river and Kanawha canal and other