John Harrison clock maker 1693-1776

[Rena]

Unfortunately it's "Murphy's Law" that there's hundreds of John Harrison's dotted about the land.

Have you approached Lincolnshire archives to see what they have on your horologist query?   I see that for some reason they have a "John Harrison Memorial on a 1736 timepiece"

url link:-   http://www.rootschat.com/links/01p4n/

[Happyhaddock]

I haven't yet started chasing this in any dedicated formal manner, I'm just skimming through copies of all my mother's old digital research notes; Notes which sadly  have been somewhat corrupted as a consequence of the file types not being properly supported by software running on recent versions of Windows... clearly this doesn't help me.

Years back my mother did put a lot of effort into chasing parish records and archives so my first step is to try find time to head back across the country to Lincolnshire to sit down with her to work through all her research to make better sense of what she knows and where she got the information from and look at anything she has on paper.

When I do have time to pursue this in a more thorough manner I'd hope to make some more progress... years back, seemingly in another life now, I used to work as a museum archivist and helped set up a research centre and archive for a national museum so I've some familiarity with how to go about such research.

Cheers

[Andrew Tarr]

Thinking generally, I suggest that if your surname can be traced to a smallish village, it is likely that there will be a connection, but you may have to go back several generations to reach a common ancestor.  I have transcribed 18th-C registers for rural and urban parishes, and one soon finds a few dozen repeating surnames, often spelt in various ways, presumably attempting to follow the accent of the informant before literacy spread and spellings settled down.

My Tydeman ancestor from Suffolk was from a family that loved to alternate two given names for their sons, which now makes it almost impossible to determine who was who.  'John Harrison' is unlikely to be unique.

If your loss of file access is because those files are 16-bit, you could get simple software to run a 'DOS-box' under Windows-10.  I do that for some 1990s databases I still use.

[guest189040]

Whilst no known relationship to whom you seek my Wife’s xGreat Grandfather’s was the Bradford Clockmaker William Sewell.

Whilst researching William we came across a renowned author of clockmaking books.

The author is called Brian Loomes and amongst his many books is one called Yorkshire Clockmakers where John Harrison is listed.

He quotes Henry Harrison Junior as his Father.

There is also reference to a James Harrison, Hull 1834-1858 as a Turret clockmaker and quote....Grandson of THE John Harrison.

I think that the dates actually refer to the period of operation rather than birth and death.  James was born in Hull and he is in the 1861 census as clockmaker living with his Wife Elizabeth (Scruton) on what looks like Porter Street.

Hope this helps in some small way.

[Happyhaddock]

The software issue is to do with the fact my mother recorded all her notes in an old package that is now  obsolete...

Although somewhat of a tangent my mother began programming computers way back when they were still mechanical rather than being based on silicon micro chips, and later, when enough people started thinking of the term "computer" as a piece of technical equipment rather than a job title for a type of mathematician, she went on to become an IT instructor.

When I queried with her why the data was saved as a basic .txt file full she implied it was to do with this software.  So I can open the file in something as simple as MS notepad where it delivers a huge "data-dump" However all the information that sorts the data into any meaningful structure is lost among a mass of additional characters and numbers dotted through this long single file. I can pick out lots of names and dates and locations, but it isn't clear which link to which. This data dump should, however, prove a mine of relevant information should I have to effectively start from scratch researching our family tree, which is unlikely.

So the issue isn't "accessing" the file but reconstructing it. It is comparable to being given a dictionary and told the story is all in there, you just need to sort the words into the right order.

As I say once I've got time to pursue this properly I need to head back to my parents and sit down with my mother to work through all her notes.... She has told me her "holy-grail" that she eventually gave up on trying to track down is a story of an old family bible containing our family tree traced back to 1066 and coming to the UK with William the Conqueror. Sadly that bible is said to have gone the USA in the mid 1800's... Her family name is Watmough (of the Lincolnshire biscuit manufacturers) where we think the connection to the Norman conquest may lie in a branch of the family with connections to Lancashire going by the names of LeScholes, more laterly just Scholes.

Cheers

[Happyhaddock]

There is also reference to a James Harrison, Hull 1834-1858 as a Turret clockmaker and quote....Grandson of THE John Harrison.

I think that the dates actually refer to the period of operation rather than birth and death.

The mid 1800's is a period when records tend to be easier to come by so I'll have to see if I can find any mention of a James Harrison in our family. Assuming the dates you quote of 1834-1858 are not his birth and death but simply the period he worked in hull then common names like James and Harrison  without exact dates for birth and death may simple be more circumstantial evidence rather than hard proof, but I'll go looking anyway.

Cheers

[guest189040]

James was born in 1791 in Hull and 1861 census lists him as Clockmaker.

There is a tree on Ancestry tracing back from him which may help in piecing together your future research.

[Rena]

If your loss of file access is because those files are 16-bit, you could get simple software to run a 'DOS-box' under Windows-10.  I do that for some 1990s databases I still use.

I do so wish I'd known that was possible as I lost so much "stuff", which I'd garnered during using my Windows 95 and 98 and then wasn't able to replace. 

[venelow]

Hello Rootschatters

After finding 500+ Trees on Ancestry for John "Longitude" Harrison I decided to research this family for myself.

I find that if the family had money Wills help enormously in tracing families in the 1700s and early 1800s. John Harrison received a great deal of money for his invention so I looked for John Harrison's Will. 

He died in 1776 and mentions only two children in his Will - his son William and a daughter called Elizabeth who married John Barton. According to the Will there are four grandchildren. William's children, John, Ann and Elizabeth and Elizabeth's son John Barton. I have found no later mention of William's daughter Elizabeth, only John and Ann are mentioned in William's Will.

2nd Generation John Harrison's children
When we get to William's Will (he died in 1815) he has one grandchild, Elizabeth Barton, the daughter of his late daughter Ann Barton who married John Barton of Pimlico. This John it appears was her cousin the son of her Aunt Elizabeth and John Barton Senior mentioned in John's Will of 1776. William states Elizabeth is 17 yrs old. When Elizabeth married into the Wright family the announcement stated her father was "of the Bank of England".

William also has a son John who was born in 1761. Obligingly, William notes that John's mother was his first wife Elizabeth Atkinson and Ann's mother was his second wife Susannah Hodgson.

William's third wife also Elizabeth (Overton) was still alive but no children by her are mentioned.

Due to the money William's father got for his development of the marine chronometer, the family is now quite well off. There is property in London.  William's son John and his granddaughter Elizabeth inherit, with provision made for William's third wife.

Third Generation John Harrison's grandson John
John Harrison 1761 - 1842 did not stay in London but returned to Lincolnshire and then moved to Hull. When he died in 1842 the Hull Packet newspaper notes he is the grandson of John Harrison who invented the chronometer. He was aged 80 according to the New GRO Index.

John was not married when his father died in 1815 but in the 1820s he formed a relationship with Jane Fenwick the wife of Richard Fenwick. This was much later in life than one would expect and no doubt accounts for the confusion we see in the on-line trees. If John had any earlier liaisons he does not mention them.

However in his Will written in 1836 John is quite candid about his relationship with Jane Fenwick and notes that his marriage is "legal under the law of Scotland" i.e. Common Law.  He even states that Jane's maiden name was Proctor. (Bonus!)  He has three children from this common law relationship, Charlotte, John and Henrietta. John and Henrietta were born at Great Grimsby in 1828 and 1829. I have not been able to track down Charlotte but the other children are with their parents at Spring Street in Hull in the 1841 Census. Also in the household is Ann Fenwick aged 20.  The children were all minors when the Will was written and he mentions Guardians for them. They each inherited a house in London. 

4th Generation - John Harrison Great-Grandson John 1828 - 1894
After John died Jane Harrison als Fenwick remained in the house in Spring Street Hull with her children John and Henrietta. John became a Civil Engineer. Henrietta died unmarried in 1873 and Jane died in 1878 at the age of 83. John continued living in the same house, unmarried, until his death on 12 July 1894. The Probate Register names an Emma Thornton, spinster as being granted probate. This person may be related to John's sister Charlotte. I have not obtained John's Will.

So it appears there are no living direct male descendants of John Harrison. There may be some from William's granddaughter Elizabeth Barton or his son John's daughter Charlotte but no living descendants called Harrison can exist. There maybe descendants from John Harrison's siblings especially his brother James. When John 1761 - 1842 left a specific time-piece to his son John in his Will he mentions that James was involved in the construction of it.

I love it that William and his son John gave so much information in their Wills regarding who the mothers of their children were. And so candid about the irregular marriage. Not hiding behind an anonymous trust arrangement that would not be a public document. It's almost as if they knew people would be looking for them. I think one thing we can take from this is that no direct descendant of John "Longitude" Harrison emigrated to the USA or Canada.

All the genealogical information I have found comes from Ancestry (PCC Wills), Find My Past (Lincs PRs and Newspapers) and Family Search and a few Internet searches. I have no connection to John Harrison but I thought it would be fun to see what I could find out sitting at my computer in snowy Canada.  Please feel free to review the information for yourselves and let me know your conclusions.

Venelow
Canada