He was select preacher to the university (1835–7), domestic chaplain to Howley, archbishop of Canterbury (1843–8), canon of Canterbury and archdeacon of Maidstone (1845–1887). He had a considerable knowledge of Hebrew, and was one of the Old Testament company of revisers who produced the version of the Bible issued in 1885.
At Canterbury he was distinguished by his zeal in his archidiaconal work, his intimate knowledge of the clergy, his regularity at the cathedral services, his activity in the business of various church societies, and also by his geniality, wit, and tolerance, and by his readiness to take part by sympathy and hospitality in gatherings like those of the Canterbury cricket-week or the meetings of the agricultural and archæological societies. He inherited from Archbishop Howley a valuable library, and after his death his widow presented it, with the addition of a collection of Bibles and liturgical works made by his father, and many other books acquired by himself, to Canterbury Cathedral, where it forms the Howley-Harrison Library. He was intimate with Dean Stanley during his tenure of a canonry at Canterbury, and to him Stanley dedicated the ‘Historical Memorials of Canterbury.’
Harrison died on 25 March 1887, at 7 Bedford Square, London, a house which he had inherited from Sir Robert Inglis, M.P. for Oxford University, a connection by marriage. He married in 1841 Isabella, daughter of Henry Thornton, M.P., of Battersea Rise, but had no issue.
Harrison published, besides the ‘Tracts for the Times’ and many single sermons and charges, one of which gives a life of Archbishop Howley: 1. ‘Historical Inquiry into the true Interpretation of the Rubrics,’ London, 1849. 2. ‘Prophetic Outlines of the Christian Church, and the Anti-Christian power as traced in the Visions of Daniel and St. John; in twelve lectures preached in the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn on the foundation of Bishop Warburton,’ London, 1849. 3. ‘Privileges, Duties, and Perils in the English Branch of the Church of Christ,’ six sermons, London, 1850. He also edited: 1. Sermons of William Grant Broughton [q. v.], bishop of Sydney, with a prefatory memoir, 1857; and 2. ‘Christianity in Egypt. Letters and papers concerning the Coptic Church,’ 1883.
[Private information.]
HARRISON, Sir GEORGE (d. 1841), legal writer, son of Thomas Harrison, attorney-general and advocate-general of Jamaica, studied law, was appointed by Pitt registrar for the redemption of the land tax (1798); counsel to the war office, the commander-in-chief's office, and the barrack office (1804); and assistant secretary to the treasury (1805). In 1823 he was made auditor for life of the duchy of Cornwall, and in 1826 auditor for life of the duchy of Lancaster. He was made a knight of the grand cross of the Royal Hanoverian and Guelphic order 13 April 1831. He died at Spring Gardens Terrace, London, 3 Feb. 1841. He was twice married, and had a son by his first wife.
Harrison wrote: 1. ‘Observations in support of the Title of the King to all Escheats and Forfeitures arising within the Fees or Liberties of the Duchy of Lancaster,’ &c., 1832. 2. ‘Fragments of History,’ 1834. 3. ‘Substance of a Report on the Laws and Jurisdiction of the Stannaries in Cornwall,’ 1835. 4. ‘Memoir respecting the Hereditary Revenues of the Crown and the Revenues of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, and Remonstrance and Petition addressed to the Chancellor and Council of the Duchy of Lancaster,’ 1838.
[The Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, 1841; Gent. Mag. 1841, i. 328; Times, 5 Feb. 1841; Addit. MSS. 20139 f. 104, 20201 f. 78, 22902 f. 147, 29472–4 (including some of official correspondence, 1812–1819), 32166, f. 51.]
HARRISON, GEORGE HENRY (1816–1846), water-colour painter, born in Liverpool in 1816, was the second son of Mary Harrison [q. v.], the flower-painter. He came to London at the age of fourteen, and improved his practice and pocket by working for the dealers. Subsequently he was engaged in making anatomical and other medical drawings and illustrations, and in studying anatomy at the Hunterian school in Windmill Street. He derived much benefit from the advice and encouragement of John Constable, R.A., who showed him great kindness, criticising his sketches, and urging him continually to study nature closely. In 1840 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, and in 1845 he was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in Pall Mall. A painful disease forced him to travel in search of health. In Paris, as he had done in London and its neighbourhood, he formed classes for out-of-door sketching, and was very successful. His works were chiefly landscapes and domestic scenes, and the influence of Watteau and Boucher is discernible in some of his paintings. He seldom worked in oil. He made drawings of the fancy ball scenes and other festivities at Buckingham Palace for the ‘Illustrated London News.’ But his strength lay in landscape, with luxurious foliage and figures well introduced. The
