This gentleman was the father of two sons; of these the eldest, who also bore the name of Benjamin, is said to have been a man of distinguished talents, and great political reputation during his short life, for he expired at the age of thirty-seven. He increased the estate of the family by the addition of extensive tracts of land, and settled himself at Berkeley, in the county of Charles City, and opposite to Surrey, on James river. This seat, which has been ever since the mansion of the head branch of the family, and where Mr. Benjamin Harrison, the seventh lineal descendant of the first settler, still resides, is beautifully situated on the banks of the river, in full view of City Point, the well known seaport of Petersburg and Richmond. Here he introduced that system of generous hospitality which has long characterized his native state, and it will be readily believed that in his hands that character did not degenerate. monument, which is constructed of white marble, with unusual taste, is yet to be seen in the church-yard of Westover parish, and is inscribed with a very long account in Latin, not always perfectly pure, of his descent, rank, and virtues. He was speaker of the house of burgesses of the colony, and held that office at the time of his death. He was by profession a lawyer, remarkable for his disinterestedness, learning, eloquence, and correctness; over ready to protect the destitute and helpless; bold in asserting and defending the rights of his conntry; and always foremost in promoting the public good. His epitaph is closed by the following elegiac stanza; the merit of which perhaps will not be thought to lie in the beauty either of the poetry or the latinity.

Hunc meritò proprium Virginia jactat alumnum.

Tam properè abrept im, sed querebunda dolet;

His

Publicus hic dolor, et nunquam reparabile damnum,

Det Deus ut vitæ sint documenta novæ.

Of his brother, Henry Harrison, the founder of that branch of the family which settled at Brandon, a beautiful seat about twelve miles below Berkeley, on James river, a character yet more interesting is recorded. He was a judge of one of the courts, and in all his official duties, was strictly honourable. In private life he was said to be a tender husband, a merciful master, a fair dealer, and a generous friend, pious to his God, and beneficent to his fellow creatures. "So kind was he to his relations," says the interesting inscription on his tomb, "that his grateful heir, though he gained a large fortune, yet thought himself a loser by his death."

Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, had married at an early age Elizabeth, the daughter of Lewis Burwell, of the county of Gloucester, a gentleman of much distinction in the province. By her he left at his death a son, Benjamin, who succeeded him at Berkeley, and a daughter, who bore her mother's name. Of his son little is recorded. It is not known that he held any other political situation, than that of a member of the colonial legislature. In the management of his private property, he was remarkably successful, having added during his life very largely to the family estate. He married the oldest daughter of Mr. Carter, the king's surveyor general, who from his official situation was enabled to select lands of great value, and by this means greatly enriched his family connexions, which were very extensive Mr. Harrison was killed, with two of his daughters, by lightning, in the mansion-house at Berkeley; and left at the time of his death, six sons and two daughters. Of these

daughters, one married Peyton Randolph, the first president of congress, and the other, his brother, William Randolph. Of his sons, the subject of this memoir was the oldest.

BENJAMIN HARRISON was born in the family mansion at Berkeley, but on what day, we have been unable precisely to ascertain. At the time of his father's death, he was a student in the college of William and Mary, but owing to a quarrel with one of the professors, in which he was engaged, he left that institution before the usual period. Although still very young, he had already displayed so much firmness and decision of character, that the management of his estate, which was very extensive, was committed entirely to his charge, soon after he returned from college. As the head also of a family, which had always been among the conspicuous political leaders of the colony, he was soon called on to represent his district in the provincial legislature, and took his seat in the house of burgesses, before he had arrived at the age strictly required by law. To this station during his whole life, whenever his other political employments did not interfere with it, he was always elected, except in one solitary instance, which we shall have occasion hereafter to notice.

He had not been long a member of the legislature, before he became one of the principal leaders in it. A great deal of plain good sense, united with a ready sprightly manner, and much promptness and decision of character, rendered him highly useful. And in addition to this, his large fortune and his connexions by marriage, which were extended through almost every leading family in Virginia, gave him great personal influence. These circumstances soon pointed him out, to the royal government, as one on whom their highest favours could be justly and advantageously conferred.

The office of governor was always reserved for a native of Great Britain, or at least for a person sent directly from that country; but there remained many lucrative and honourable appointments for favoured colonists. Among these, that of a member of the executive council, which answered to the English privy council, was the chief in point of rank, and considerable in regard to influence; into that body the government proposed, notwithstanding his youth, to introduce Mr. Harrison.

But this plan, however desirable it might seem to be to the colonial government, and indeed however just and proper in itself, was frustrated by the occurrences of the times. Mr. Harrison was not a man to be led away from conduct which he deemed correct, by any personal advantage. The measures which had been already adopted by the British ministers, although they were far from having reached that excess to which they were subsequently carried, were yet such as met with strong reprobation from all the patriotic burgesses of Virginia. With these he therefore united, heart and hand, in opposing those measures of the mother country, and soon became obnoxious to the royal party, in proportion to the zeal with which they had previously courted him.

On the fourteenth of November, 1764, he was appointed, with several distinguished members of the house, to prepare an address to the king, a memorial to the lords, and a remonstrance to the house of commons, on the subject of the resolutions which had been passed preparatory to the stamp act. To which of the gentlemen of the committee the authorship of these papers should be severally assigned, we are at this time of day unable to ascertain; it does not, however, scem probable, from the character of Mr. Harrison, that either was the production of his pen; it is said, by those

who knew him, that he wrote with facility and correctness when it became necessary, but that it was an office he never sought, either from a natural indolence in that respect, or from his preference to employments of more activity and energy. On the eighteenth of December, the report of the committee was presented, but such was the temper of the times, that the more prudent, at least the more timid, altered much which seemed to indicate too strongly a feeling of resistance, and left it little more than a protestation of injured rights, and a picture of, anticipated suffering.

We have no means of tracing the particular opinions of Mr. Harrison, or the incidents of his private and political life, through the next ten years; and it would be exceeding the simple office of biography to enter into the history of Virginia during that period, although his official station closely connected him with all the important transactions of the times. We know, however, and it is sufficient, that in his opinion and his conduct, he was closely connected with Randolph, Wythe, Jefferson, and Henry, and the other distinguished patriots of the day, who so carefully nourished in Virginia those sparks of freedom, which were gradually extended throughout the continent.

On the first of August, 1774, the first convention of delegates from the several counties and corporations of Virginia, assembled at Williamsburg. They there passed a series of resolutions, which prove the spirit by which they were animated; and set forth the determination to which they had come, of supporting to the last their American brethren, and opposing the designs of the mother country. With these objects they entered warmly into the plan which had been generally recommended, of assembling a congress of dele