John Harrison clock maker 1693-1776

[Rena]

Have you looked on the surname interest list?

There appears to be somebody else who is following a John Harrison, Lincoln, Yorkshire, London.

http://surname.rootschat.com/sit-surnames.php?letter1=H&letter2=3&surname=HARRISON#top_tv

[Happyhaddock]

Hello Rootschatters

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


Venelow
Canada

Thanks very much for all this information. I may have to take a look at ancestry and pay whatever subscription they charge to read though what others have found out.

Cheers

[Happyhaddock]

Well as best as is possible given the somewhat confused and corrupted nature of the digital records I have about my own family  I've tried to match any names and dates to those given about THE John Harrison but still with no luck.

The earliest Harrison I can find in my mothers records is a Hill Harrison bpd1787 (presumably baptised?) with the names David and Elizabeth in brackets afterwards (presumably parents?) but with no location

later on there is another note without dates or context linking the names David, Elizabeth, Hill and Mary to the surname Harrison... suggesting the family may have later had a daughter.

Thereafter the bulk of the Harrison refences are from the mid 1800's with a John Dimmock Harrison, two different William Harrisons, an example of the oh-so-common John Harrison and a  Mrs Raithby Harrison.

In terms of trying to tie things back to THE John Harrison then some of the earliest notes I have about our family are of an Elizabeth Scot whose name gets mentioned a few times  around the 1770's in connection with a Benjamin, William and Sussana. Again because of the corrupted nature of my mothers records I cannot place them in any context

THE John Harrison's second wife was an Elizabeth Scott  who would have been alive in the later part of the 1700's but again this is no direct proof of any connection to my own family history.


On an unrelated point altogether trawling through all my mothers records has  just thrown up a connection to an Italian sounding sculptor  (Francisco Degli INNOCENTI) from the early 1800's listed as Living first in Southampton and then  in Liverpool.  As somebody that makes my living as an artist and sculptor and now lives within spitting distance of Liverpool it seemed an interesting discovery.
 

[BenRalph]

I'm sorry to be off topic here but the John Harrison Lesser watch was the reason that the Trotter brothers became millionaires in 1996. That may be why Harrison is known among younger people.

[Happyhaddock]

Hello Rootschatters


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.


Venelow
Canada

If what you write is true then there may be no direct male descendants, however I have found unverified suggestions of additional male descendants not included in the information you list from wills. However  until proven they are merely interesting rumours ...

Nevertheless THE Johh H with his wife Elizabeth Scott had a son William who in turn gave him granddaughters  Anne and Elizabeth and a grandson John. The speculation is of them having two other bothers: One called William Harrison would be THE John Harrison's grandson and he supposedly produced more generations of Williams and Johns until ending up with another Anne Harrison born in 1807. Then there is the suggestion that William (1728-1815) had more than one son called John Harrison and that this additional John in turn had a son by the name of Charles.

If you spend  long enough on the inter-net you can find people claiming almost anything, however without a clearly laid out trail of evidence you have to question how much faith you place in things that strangers post on the inter-net... However it would appear that William Harrison (1728-1815) may have an extensive list of descendants.

Plus there is also the separate line of enquiry following descendants of THE John Harrisons younger brother James who is known to have worked extensively with John on the early clocks. I've found accounts in a nineteenth century astronomical societies papers questioning if it were James that was actually the more gifted of the two but that John Harrison gets the credit on account of being both the older brother and the more socially forward in terms of promoting their work? James' family seems to progress forward through several generations of bell founders and clock makers in and around Hull.

Pursuing genealogical connections can oh so easily become and addictive pastime!

[laurenrawding113]

Hi, i may have some information i am a direct decsdendant of John Harrison through my mothers side, my great-grandfather is a famous clocksman in Yorkshire. I have uncles and male figures that are a direct decsendant of him, it's very difficult to find the fortune, nonetheless its there. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Maiden Stone]

On an unrelated point altogether trawling through all my mothers records has  just thrown up a connection to an Italian sounding sculptor  (Francisco Degli INNOCENTI) from the early 1800's listed as Living first in Southampton and then  in Liverpool.  As somebody that makes my living as an artist and sculptor and now lives within spitting distance of Liverpool it seemed an interesting discovery.
 

I've come across several Italian sculptors and marble workers in England in 19th century. There was a boom in church building in England. 

[trish1120]

You may already have this by now Happyhaddock

Brief outline;

HILL Harison was bapt 9 Dec 1787 Burgh-Le-Marsh,Lincoln to DAVID/ELIZ
He married Mary DALES 01 Feb 1808 Markby
Several children bapt to them Willoughby 1813-1831 (he was a Labourer**) abode Sloothby

1851 we have;
Hill Harrison   63
Mary Harrison   63
Job H Harrison   19 Grandson
Richard Low   4 Grandson

1841 as Will;
Will Harrison   50
Mary Harrison   50
Joh Harrison   9

David/Elizabeths children seem to be bapt Burgh 1786/1787 and later Fulstow 1792/1794/1795

Burial 22 Jun 1799 Fulstow for ELIZABETH, Wife of DAVID , age 37 (1762)
Burial 04 Aug 1840 Fulstow for a DAVID Harrison age 80 (1760)

My gut tells me David married Elizabeth SMITHSON 12 Apr 1783 Fulstow

All easy to find on FreeREG.

Trish

[56jole]

No descendants of John Longitude Harrison in America? Harrison was married to Elizabeth Barrel for 8 years. His second wife, Elizabeth Scott, lived to age 72. Mind you, not all births were recorded in those days and wills might well include those living and/or simply those with whom one was on good terms. Sometimes the oldest son was given the farm or business while younger sons sought their fortunes elsewhere.

Some interesting evidence was left behind by a William Harrison of London who emigrated to Philadelphia with his family in 1794 to engrave some of America's first banknotes. Read about this individual at the following links, and by all means make your own conclusions!

William Harrison is mentioned 15 times in this thesis:
https://core.ac.uk/download/8763936.pdf

William's grandson (Gabriel), who had among other things become a famous Shakespearean actor in New York, was claimed to be a direct descendant of John Longitude Harrison:
https://archive.org/stream/nationalcyclopae05newy#page/218/mode/2up

Items which may or may not have been passed down through and/or donated to the U.S. Library of Congress by members of the Philadelphia family:
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/rbc/rbctos/2017gen21916/2017gen21916.pdf
https://www.loc.gov/item/2006691764/
https://www.loc.gov/item/09019451/

Descendants of William Harrison, the original immigrant to Philadelphia, are included in a document, "Some descendants of William Harrison, engraver, born London, England circa 1750, died Philadelphia, Pa., 1803.":
https://books.google.de/books?id=Ls4BKE8uHC8C&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=william+harrison+engraver+philadelphia&source=bl&ots=KUHed6PPbA&sig=ACfU3U23q95KfjGbKCTtG_RWLDLUQl-1lQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwityLzoiYL3AhXR66QKHWDwDMMQ6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=william%20harrison%20engraver%20philadelphia&f=false

Information including newspaper clippings regarding two sons of immigrant William Harrison:
https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/108610361/charles-peter-harrison
https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/116868186/richard-granville-harrison

This William Harrison married Elizabeth Foster on the 28th of January 1772 at Allhallows, London Wall, London, England (Source: England Marriages, 1538–1973). Would this marriage certificate provide the true identity of William Harrison's father? Might some DNA from American descendants of the immigrant engraver be available?