Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/26

 FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION

II

(lied in i<'>94, was born in Isle of Wight icuinty. Virginia, was a student at William and Mary College in 1778-1780. where he Wythe. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and as a means of estab- lishing new bonds between the North and South obtained from the society charters for branches at Harvard and Vale. He was a member of the house of delegates in 1781, and shortly after was elected a member of the executive council. In 1783 was elected to the Continental Congress, and served till his death. October 17. 1785. and was buried in New York. He was a man of much abil- ity, and his early death was the occasion of great regret. Congress atten<led his funeral in a body, and the bill of ex])enses was dis- charged by the \'irginia legislature.
 * «iudied law under Chancellor George

Harrison, Benjamin, son of Benjamin and •Anne i Carter) Harrison, was born at Ber- keley, on James river, in Charles City county. \*irginia. in 1726, and was a student at William and Mary College, which he left on account of a misunderstanding with a county in the hou.^^e of burge.^^ses from 1749 to 1775. ^'^d ^^'^s ^^^ ^f ^^^^ leading mem- bers. He served on the committee, in Dc- cem!)er. 17^>4. which drew up the address to the King, and the remonstrances to the two houses i»f parliament against the proposed ^tamp .\ct. but. in 1765. he opposed the .^tainp Act resolutions of Patrick Henry as untimely and impolitic. He sat in the first ( ontinental Congress. 1774. and was a mem- Iht till 1777. He was a member of the com- mittee which framed the militia system, in c peration during the revolutionary war. He was chairman of the committee which con-
 * rotessor. He representetl Charles City

ducted the foreign intercourse of the united colonies, and was at the head of the board or war from June, 1776, until his retirement from Congress. Sent to Maryland, he fitted out a fleet of small vessels and stopped de- predations on the coast, and was chairman of the committee for fortification of ports and protection of privateers. He presided ever the debates in Congress upon the Declaration of Independence, and was one cf the signers. From May, 1778, to Novem- ber, 1781, he was speaker of the house of delegates of Virginia, when that body was driven from place to place. He was governor from November, 1781, to November. 1784, and being ineligible for re-election, returned to the assembly and was re-elected speaker November 24. 1785. In 1788 he was a mem- ber of the state convention called to con- sider the Federal constitution, and opposed its ratification. In 1790 he declined a re- iiomination for governor. He died April 24, 1 79 1, the day after his unanimous election to the legislature. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William and Eliza- beth (Churchill) Bassett. His eldest son. Iicnjamin, was paymaster-general of the southern department during the revolution, j«nd his younge.st son. William Henry, was ninth president of the United States.

Harrison, Carter Henry, son of Benjamin Harrison, of "Berkeley," and brother of Benjamin Harrison, the signer of the Declar- ation of Indo])endence. was born about 1727. attended William and Mary College, resided at Clifton. Cumberland county; was chair- man of the county committee of safety, and on April 22, I77^>. drafted and submitted to the people assembled at Cumberland Court House, the fir.-jt explicit instructions in favor

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