Thomas Harrison (1681 - before 1755) was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1728 to 1734.

Biography

Harrison was baptized on 24 April 1681, the sixth son of Richard Harrison, MP of

Balls Park Balls Park in Hertford is a Grade I Listed mid-17th-century house. The estate and house are set in over 63 acres of parkland which is listed Grade II on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. The estate an ...

and his wife Audrey Villiers, daughter of

George Villiers, 4th Viscount Grandison George Villiers, 4th Viscount Grandison was an Anglo-Irish peer from the Villiers family. He is known for being the maternal grandfather of Pitt the elder, prime minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. He was also the uncle of two royal mis ...

. left, Battle of Sheriffmuir Harrison joined the army and was a

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

in the

4th Dragoon Guards The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers. It was renamed as the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards in 1788 and service for two centuries, incl ...

in 1697, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Ormonde, Lord lieutenant of Ireland before 1705, captain and lieutenant colonel in the

1st Foot Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

in 1705, brevet colonel in 1707 and colonel of the

6th Foot The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War ...

from 1708 to 1716. He was adjutant-general in Spain in 1708 and brought back Lord Stanhope’s despatches after the victory at the

Battle of Saragossa The Battle of Saragossa, also known as the Battle of Zaragoza, took place on 20 August 1710 during the War of the Spanish Succession. A Spanish Bourbon army loyal to Philip V of Spain and commanded by the Marquis de Bay was defeated by a Gr ...

in 1710, for which he received £1,000 from Queen Anne. In 1715 he was adjutant-general in Scotland where he was present at the Battle of Sheriffmuir and brought the Duke of Argyll's despatches to

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria ( fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgoruk ...

, who gave him £500. He sold his regiment in March 1716. Harrison stood for Parliament at

Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the ...

at a by-election in 1724, but was defeated in a contest. He was brought in as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest re ...

at a by-election on 30 May 1728 when

Thomas Pitt Thomas Pitt (5 July 1653 – 28 April 1726) of Blandford St Mary in Dorset, later of Stratford in Wiltshire and of Boconnoc in Cornwall, known during life commonly as ''Governor Pitt'', as ''Captain Pitt'', or posthumously, as ''"Diamond" ...

recruited two voters to defeat the single supporter of Henry Fox. In Parliament he voted with the Administration on the Hessians in 1730 but against them on the

Excise Bill The Excise Bill of 1733 was a proposal by the British government of Robert Walpole to impose an excise tax on a variety of products. This would have allowed Customs officers to search private dwellings to look for contraband untaxed goods. The per ...

in 1733 and on the repeal of the Septennial Act in 1734. He was not chosen again at the

1734 British general election The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...

and when Thomas Pitt put up his brother William Pitt for Old Sarum at a by-election in 1735, Harrison offered to pay him off, which William Pitt considered absurd and impertinent. Harrison was probably unmarried and died before 1755. His brothers

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

and

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

were also MPs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Thomas 1681 births 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards officers Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1727–1734 Year of death unknown Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers Grenadier Guards officers British Army personnel of the War of the Spanish Succession