Hannah Harrison

Not the daughter of John Churchill, ‘the Colonist’

The tombstone of Benjamin Harrison, of Surry, the councillor, and Hannah, his wife, gives the date of her birth and death, but not her parentage, and the destruction of so many of the public records and the incompleteness of family records prevent our discovering this. The late William Byrd Harrison, of "Upper Brandon," was of the opinion that she was a Churchill but there is nothing to confirm this, and it may have been derived from the marriage of her granddaughter, Hannah, with Mr. Churchill.

Benjamin Harrison, the councillor, and Hannah, his wife, had issue:

Children:

• 1. Sarah, b. Aug. 14, 1670; d. May 5, 1713; m. Rev. James Blair, minister of Jamestown Parish ; Commissary of the Bishop of London for Virginia, and President of William and Mary College; he d. 1743 ; no issue. 3 -
• 2. BENJAMIN, b. 1673; of whom later.
• 3-3. NATHANIEL; of whom later.
• 3 - 4. Hannah, b. Dec. 15, 1678; d. April 4, 1732; m. Hon. Philip Ludwell, b. Feb: 4, 1672 ; an influential member of the King's Coun cil ; son of Hon. Philip Ludwell, Gov. of Carolina, and later of the Virginia Council, and his wife Lucy (Higginson-Burwell) Barnard. (See Burwell lineage.)
• 3 - 5. Henry, of Sussex Co., Va., the ancestor of the "Sussex Harrisons."
• 3 - 6. Elizabeth b. 1680; d. 1707; m. Hon. William Edwards, of Surry Co., Va., a Burgess, 1706; son of William and Ann (Mansfield) Edwards, of Jamestown, Va., and had issue.
  
  

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I. Sarah Harrison ((3)), of whose birth the date on the tombstone at Jamestown has been printed both 1670 and 1678, the latter being clearly wrong, as Hannah was born that year. If 1670 be correct, it shows that all the children, except perhaps Mrs. Edwards, but probably including her, were by wife Hannah, as Sarah is declared to have been, the tombstone saying:

"She was daughter of Col. Benjamin and Mrs. Hannah Harrison, of Surry. Born, August 14th, 1670; died May ye 5, 1713, exceedingly beloved and lamented. Sarah married Rev. James Blair, D. D., minister of Jamestown Parish, Commissary of the Bishop of London for Virginia, and President of William and Mary College, who survived her thirty years."

II. Benjamin Harrison ((3)), ancestor of the Presidents, b. about 1673; d. 1710.

III. Nathaniel Harrison ((3)), b. August 8, 1677; d. November 30, 1727.

IV. Hannah Harrison ((3)), b. December 15, 1678; d. April 4, 1731.

I give the following note from the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. IV, No. 2, October, 1898:

James Blair, D. D., educated at Edinburgh, came to Virginia in 1665; appointed commissary of the Bishop of London, and exofficio member of the Council in 1690; was the father of William and Mary College, and its first president; married the daughter of Hon. Benjamin Harrison, of "Wakefield," Surry County, and died in 1743, having been a minister for fifty-eight, commissary and councillor fifty-four, and President of the College, fifty years.

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From http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/a/r/Larry-H-Barker/WEB...

Hannah Churchill? was born February 13, 1650/51, and died February 16, 1697/98. She married Benjamin Harrison on Abt. 1670, son of Benjamin Harrison and Mary ?.

Notes for Hannah Churchill?:

Inventory of the estate of Hannah Harrison, dec'd., taken on the 4th day of January, 1714, by Gilbert Hay and John Wilkinson. Returned to Court by William Harrison, administrator of the said estate, on February 8, 1714. DEEDS, ETC. 1713-1728, page 43, Prince George County, Virginia.

Accounting of the estate of Hannah Harrison, dec'd., returned to Court by Rebecca Harrison, administrator, at Court held at Merchants Hope on the 9th day of February, 1724. Shows payment for first administration granted to Wm. Harrison. DEEDS, ETC. 1713-1728 DEEDS, ETC. 1713-1728, page 792, Prince George County, Virginia.

More About Hannah Churchill? and Benjamin Harrison: Marriage: Abt. 1670

Children of Hannah Churchill? and Benjamin Harrison are:

1. +Nathaniel Harrison, b. 1671, d. Bef. February 24, 1726/27, Surry Co., VA.
2. +Benjamin Harrison, b. 1673, d. 1745, Charles City County, VA.
3. Henry Harrison, b. 1675.
4. ? Harrison, b. 1677.
5. Hannah Harrison, b. December 15, 1678.
6. Sarah Harrison, b. 1679.
7. +Katherine Harrison, b. Abt. 1682.

Disputed Origins

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-476999

Last name at Birth (LNAB) research

Various sources give different maiden names for the wife of the Honorable Benjamin Harrison of Surry County Virginia. Stella Picket Hardy, in her biography of the Harrison Family, in 1911, gives Hannah's maiden name as Churchill. [1] In The House of Cravens, written in 1972, Ruth H. McConathy writes, "Hannah Harrison; who by tradition was said to be the daughter of General Thomas Harrison, The Regicide, and a relative of Rev. Thomas Harrison. And in 1990, [2] Gary Boyd Roberts just leaves Hannah's last name blank.

A thorough review of wills and land deeds done by Charles Keith resulted in the same conclusion, that Hannah's heritage is unknown. In addition, he believes that the surname of "Churchill" is an error based on the fact that her granddaughter, Hannah, married a "Churchill"[3]

Another extensive research done by the Virginia Heraldica indicates that her maiden name is "Unknown"[4]

Finally a review of English resources in Oxfordshire and all of England; nothing matches for a Hannah Churchill from 1500 to 1700. Lee-5956 18:47, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

Another theory is that her parents are Winston Churchill and Elizabeth Drake.[5] They had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, of whom only six survived infancy, five sons and one daughter. The children of this marriage are well documented and there is no daughter name Hannah that would have lived beyond infancy.[6]

References

• “Tennessee Cousins: A History of Tennessee People.” By Worth Stickley Ray. Page 505. GoogleBooks
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=43362945
• James River Harrison Line < link >