William Harris (1757–1812) was a farmer, soldier, and member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He was the father of two other American military men.
Early life
William Harris was born October 7, 1757, on his parents' farm in
Willistown Township in the
Province of Pennsylvania
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...
.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 21.] His father, Thomas Harris (1722–1799), had immigrated from Ireland about 1745.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 20.] His mother, the former Elizabeth Bailey (1726–1799), also an immigrant from Ireland, was the heir of her childless uncle, Alexander Bailey, owner of the farm.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, pp. 20-21.] About 1760, the family moved to nearby Grubb's mill, and about 1768, they moved to neighboring
East Whiteland Township in the
Great Valley of Pennsylvania where, in 1770, Thomas Harris bought a farm just inside the
Welsh Tract.
This farm was William Harris' home for the rest of his life.
Thomas and Elizabeth Harris had nine children, seven of whom—two sons and five daughters—lived to adulthood.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 27.] Both sons, William and his older brother John (1753–1838), participated in the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 22.]
Military service
William Harris joined the Pennsylvania militia at the age of 18, as the
Revolutionary War broke out. The first known mention of him appears in a memorandum book of Captain
Persifor Frazer in the summer of 1776, which calls him a sergeant.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 33.] In March 1777 he was appointed a second lieutenant in Captain John Marshall's company of the State Regiment of Foot, Col. John Bull, commander. In time, he rose to the rank of captain.
He is listed as captain of the 5th Company, 5th Battalion, of the Pennsylvania Militia for 1777, and of the 4th Company, 4th Battalion for 1780. His regiment was taken into the
Pennsylvania Line
The Pennsylvania Line was a formation within the Continental Army. The term "Pennsylvania Line" referred to the quota of numbered infantry regiments assigned to Pennsylvania at various times by the Continental Congress. These, together with simila ...
of the
Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
, and became the
Thirteenth Regiment, which saw action in the battles of
the Brandywine and
Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
United States
* Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County
* Ge ...
and several minor engagements. Although records exist showing his involvement in a number of troop movements later in the Revolution, his battalion appears not to have seen any battles in the later years of the war.
His name appears on a list of Chester County residents who applied to the government for reparations after the war was over. Harris was involved in the capture of Joseph Doane, a notorious highwayman and member of a family of robbers, in 1782.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1898, p. 16.]
Harris again saw service in 1794, when the militia was called upon to suppress the
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...
in western Pennsylvania. He served as captain of the eighth company of the Chester County regiment, and was the regimental paymaster. He continued his involvement with the state military organization for the rest of his life. In 1811, he was commissioned brigadier general of the Second Brigade, Third Division of Pennsylvania troops. When the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
broke out, Governor
Simon Snyder
Simon Snyder (November 5, 1759November 9, 1819) was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, serving three terms from 1808 to 1817. He led the state through the War of 1812.
Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Snyder established a ...
called up 14,000 troops, including Harris, but the new general died before the troops took the field.
Legislative service
Harris was elected to the
Pennsylvania General Assembly
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
in 1779, 1780, 1810, and 1811. He served on the committee to arrange the procedures for the election of the state's president and vice-president in 1780.
He participated in the last session of the legislature before his death.
Other activities
Although a lifetime farmer, Harris was actively involved in community affairs, and was especially interested in public education. He was instrumental in the founding of the Chester County academy. While in the legislature, he obtained an appropriation to build the school's buildings, and he donated the land on which they were built, which was a part of his farm.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, pp. 33-34.][Joseph S. Harris, 1898, p. 17.] He is listed as a member of Masonic Lodge No. 59, founded in East Whiteland in 1790.
He was also an elder of the Great Valley Presbyterian Church, which his family had joined upon leaving
St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley during the Revolution because St. Peter's, an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
congregation, continued to say prayers for
the King,
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 24.] as was required of Anglican clergy.
[Hein and Shattuck 2004.] He was buried at Great Valley Presbyterian after his death of a "lingering illness" on September 4, 1812.
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 34.]
Marriage and children
Harris married Mary Campbell (February 27, 1752 – November 26, 1837), daughter of Rev. John Campbell (1713–1753
[Joseph S. Harris, 1908, p. 12.]), a Presbyterian minister, and the former Mary Hubbard (and stepdaughter of Richard Richison
), on April 24, 1780.
William and Mary Harris had seven children:
[Joseph S. Harris, 1903, p. 38.]
* Campbell Harris (1781–1853), a farmer. He married Jane Lee and moved to
Geneseo, New York
Geneseo is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Livingston County, New York, Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, United States. It is at the south end of the five-county Rochester metropol ...
.
*
Thomas Harris
William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...
(1784–1861), a physician and surgeon who was chief of the
U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He married, successively, Jane Hodgdon and Esther White Macpherson.
* Mary Harris (1786–1791).
*
John Harris (1789–1864), commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. He married, successively, Mary Forster and Mary Gilliat Gray.
* William Harris (1792–1861), a physician in Chester County. He married Elizabeth Matilda Patterson.
* James Bailey Harris (1795–1881), a farmer. He moved to the Genesee valley in 1818 with his older brother and married Maria Driesbach.
* Stephen Harris (1798–1851), a physician and farmer. He married Marianne Smith (a granddaughter of
Persifor Frazer) and was the father of
Joseph Smith Harris
Joseph Smith Harris (April 29, 1836 – June 1, 1910) was an American surveyor, civil engineer, and railroad executive. Largely self-taught, he worked on several projects for the U.S. government, including the Coast Survey of the Mississippi ...
.
References
Bibliography
*Futhey and Cope
Applicants for Reparation after war with Britain ''The History of Chester County''. Chester County, Pa., 1881.
*J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope,
History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical Sketches', Vol. 1, 1995.
*Joseph S. Harris,
Notes on the Ancestry of the Children of Joseph Smith Harris and Delia Silliman Brodhead', Allen, Lane & Scott, Philadelphia, 1898.
*Joseph S. Harris,
Record of the Harris Family, Descended from John Harris, Born 1680, in Wiltshire, England'. Geo. F. Lasher, Philadelphia, 1903. (A less-legible character-recognition scan appear
here)
*Joseph S. Harris, ''The Collateral Ancestry of Stephen Harris, Born September 4, 1798, and Marianne Smith, Born April 2, 1805'', George F. Lasher, Philadelphia, 1908.
*David Hein and Gardiner H. Shattuck, Jr., ''The Episcopalians''. Church Publishing, New York, 2004. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, William
1757 births
1812 deaths
American militia generals
Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania
Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
People from Chester County, Pennsylvania
People of colonial Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania militiamen in the American Revolution