Businessmen in Newport
Among the contacts of Joseph and Peter Harrison was John Banister, a leading Newport merchant, trading with England, the West Indies (particularly the Bay of Honduras) and elsewhere. He also engaged in privateering and the slave trade. In 1752, he held one of the last public slave auctions in Rhode Island at his store, describing them in advertisements as "the finest cargo of slaves ever brought into New England". He was also the son-in-law of Edward Pelham. At some point after their first voyage to Newport the brothers decided to settle in the colony, and Joseph entered Banister's employment, managing the merchant's affairs. He was hired by Liverpool slave trader Joseph Manesty in 1745 to supervise the building of a ship in Banister's yard. Since the Quakers were opposed to the slave trade, it seems that Joseph Harrison had left his Quaker roots behind. In 1743 he returned to England to court Eleanor Ridgway. She made the voyage to America in 1746, disembarking at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and marrying Joseph the same night. Joseph's association with Banister came to an end and he formed a partnership with his brother Peter. Two children were born to Joseph and Eleanor; In 1750 they had a son, named Richard Acklom, who was christened at Trinity Church on 4 February. Two years later a daughter, Elizabeth, was born.
Both brothers became pillars of Newport society. Joseph was one of the founding members of the Redwood Library Company of Newport in 1747, and the library (or Atheneum) was built to Peter Harrison's design in 1749. Joseph had an interest in what was then called "natural philosophy" i.e. technology. When a boundary survey was to be made of Rhode Island he was one of the commissioners. He insisted that it was necessary to have an instrument that was capable of determining latitude. He had had experience at sea with a new instrument invented by Caleb Smith, but it would have been too costly to acquire one from the London makers. Instead Joseph supervised a local maker to produce a copy. He also owned a large astronomical quadrant which had once belonged to Edmund Halley. By 1760 Joseph was elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London. |
Peter Harrison, architect
From 1739 to 1744 Peter was at sea, becoming captain of one of the largest ships in the American trade, and voyaging to Boston, Charleston, Nova Scotia and England. At the same time he was developing his talent for drawing and cartography and his interest in architecture. In 1744 his ship was seized by a French privateer and taken as a prize to Louisburg, Nova Scotia. This enabled him to produce a plan of the harbour and fortress there, which proved useful to the colonial forces which captured Louisburg a year later. |
In 1746 Peter married Elizabeth Pelham, the daughter of Edward Pelham and niece of John Banister. He was not much liked. It was said that he had "little understanding of, and scant sympathy for, Americans of the middling or inferior sort. Native of England, Anglican in religion, Tory in politics, the associate of Tories, Anglicans and royal office-holders, Harrison favoured the effort to secure revocation of Rhode Island's charter; but he was not prominent in that movement. He took no part in opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765. His neighbours were indulgent of him as a friend regrettably holding incorrect views." (Peter Harrison (1716-1775) American Society for Propagating Useful Knowledge 1766-1768) |
Peter used his frequent visits to England to find books on architecture, and he was commissioned to produce designs for various buildings in New England. The first was apparently a house for Governor Shirley of Massachusetts in Roxbury in 1746. He became known as America's first notable architect and the founder of American classicism, but "As a gentleman architect, Harrison, like other refined men of his day, chose the form a building would take and left the construction details to artisans." (Encyclopaedia of World Biography).
In 1766 Peter took over the post of Customs Collector at New Haven from his brother, after having been seriously ill, but it was not a good time for English Crown appointees. He died in 1775, and his books and papers, including his architectural designs, were destroyed by a mob of "patriots".