Benjamin (III) Harrison was
born in about 1673 at Wakefield (Surry County) Virginia, the son of Benjamin
(II) Harrison, and died on 10 April 1710 in Charles City Virginia.
He married Elizabeth Burwell about 1698 in Carter's Creek (Gloucester)
Virginia, the daughter of Lewis and Abigail (Smith) Burwell. She
was born about 1677 in Fairfield (Gloucester) Virginia, and died on 30
Dec 1734 at Berkeley Plantation Virginia. He was an eminent lawyer
and assisted in the revision of the laws of the Colony. He also served
as Treasurer, Attorney General and Speaker of the House of Burgesses.
The public erected a monument to his memory in the Old Westover Churchyard.
He became the owner of Berkeley Plantation, following the death of Giles
Bland, the son of John Bland, the previous owner, when he was sentenced
to hang by Governor Sir William Berkeley in 1676, after participating in
“Bacon’s Rebellion”. Although Benjamin (III) was only three years old at
the time, it is probable that his father purchased it for him while he
was still young. Berkeley Hundred was comprised of about eight
thousand acres on the James River in Virginia, and was a land grant of
the London Company, in 1618, to Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George Yeardley,
Richard Berkeley and John Smith of Nibley. It was named for Richard Berkeley.
In 1619, the "good ship Margaret" of Bristol sailed for Virginia and brought
thirty-five settlers to the new Town and Hundred of Berkeley. In 1622,
a terrible massacre took place and nine people were brutally slain at Berkeley.
For several years, thereafter, the plantation lay abandoned, until William
Tucker and others took possession of it in 1636, it then became the property
of John Bland, a merchant of London. Benjamin (III) died at age thirty-seven
in 1710 and his tomb may be seen today at the site of Old Westover Church,
on the river near Westover. The inscription on the tomb is in Latin and
Greek. His wife, Elizabeth Burwell, is buried beside him and her tomb bears
the Family Coat of Arms. He apparently suffered from gout, and may
have had a heart attack following a game of cricket he played in March
from which he never fully recovered.From “Charles City County Virginia
an Official History”, edited by James P. Whittenburg and John M. Coski,
1989:
“Active and hearty, Harrison certainly did not anticipate death at the age of thirty-seven in 1710, for he left no will. As her husband died intestate, the assembly passed a special bill to allow Elizabeth Burwell Harrison to sell 5,000 acres of the southside holdings and twenty slaves that worked there to satisfy her husband’s debts. The sale left her with 20,000 acres and eighty slaves to manage until her son, Benjamin IV, reached his majority.”
This web page is authored by Scott Duncan. All information listed without a reference should be verified.
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