Ens. Thomas Harrison

Ensign King Phillip's War; Dep to Gen Court 10 May1671

Thomas Harrison was born at Whetstone in Leicestershire, England on February 5, 1626 as the fourth child of Richard and Margaret Harrison. He was baptized at West Kirby on December 2, 1627. Immigrating to Branford, Connecticut with his father in 1644, he took the oath of allegiance at New Haven on April 4, 1654. Thomas Harrison married firstly, on February 1, 1656, Dorothy, the widow of John Thompson, a farmer of New Haven. His second wife was the widow Elizabeth Stent, whom he married at Branford on March 29, 1666. Thomas Harrison was a signer of the covenant for Branford on January 20, 1667. He became a very prosperous planter in Connecticut. In 1667, he purchased the estate of Jasper Crane who moved to New Jersey. The dwelling house on this property was the first frame house erected in Branford. The estate included barns, stables, orchards and gardens. The value of the estate of Thomas Harrison in 1676 was 192 pounds, the highest value of the 37 estates of planters in Branford. Thomas Harrison served, in 1675 and 1676, as an ensign in King Philip's War, during which the Wampanoag Indians, led by King Philip, fought the settlers in Massachusetts and Connecticut in the most devastating Indian war in the history of New England. Thomas Harrison died in 1704, at which time his estate was estimated to be the largest in Branford. The name, Thomas Harrison, was prominent for five generations in colonial Connecticut.

Thomas and Dorothy Harrison had two children, Thomas and Nathaniel. The eldest son, Thomas Harrison, born in March 1657, fought in King Philip's War and was a lieutenant in Queen Anne's War in 1709, participating in the military expedition into Canada. His son' Thomas Harrison, born in 1694, moved to Litchfield, Connecticut where he acquired 1,000 acres of land, and made a gift of 100 acres to each of nine sons. He fought in the war against France and Spain in 1739-1740 and, beginning in 1751, he served as a representative in the Connecticut Legislature. He was a deacon of the First Church [Congregational] of Litchfield. His son, Thomas Harrison, born in 1722, married on September 20, 1764, Sybil Shervoy, an Acadian who was left at New Haven by a British ship. He served as a representative in the Connecticut Legislature and as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. His son Thomas Harrison of Litchfield, born in 1765, also was a Revolutionary War soldier.

Thomas and Elizabeth [Stent] Harrison had five children; Elizabeth, Mary, John, Samuel and Isaac. Elizabeth Harrison, born in January 1668, married William Barker of Branford. He was the son of Edward Barker and Elizabeth Fowler. Elizabeth Harrison Barker died on January 22, 1741.

References

• A Potter-Richardson memorial : the ancestral lines of William W. Potter of Michigan, and his wife, Margaret (Richardson) Potter. Page 18. < AncestryImage >
• Dave Utzinger's Database
• Partial Genealogy of the Harrisons of Connecticut

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Parents are from Leicestershire.

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Mar 9 2019, 13:00:37 UTC