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THE HARRISON FAMILY OF POULTON AND HORNCASTLE, LINCOLNSHIRE As you enter St Chad’s through the door leading from the Market Place you will see on the opposite wall a large memorial tablet to members of the Harrison family. It reads: Near this marble lieth the body of Margaret daughter of John and Ellen Harrison of Poulton who died 13th March 1790 aged One Year Also of Ellen his wife who died 20th September 1790 aged 34 years
Also of Dorothy their daughter who died 25th January 1791 in the 9th year of her ageAlso of the said John Harrison who died 1st August 1796 aged 43 yearsAlso in memory of John Bickerstaffe Harrison AB their sone who died on the 18th April 1810 at Horncastle in Lincolnshire aged 23 Years and was there interredAlso of Agnes their daughter who died on the 21st Novr. 1821 at Louth in Lincolnshire aged 40 and was interred at Horncastlealso of Richard Harrison their son who died on the 18th January 1825 aged 40 years and was interred at Horncastle.
Who were the Harrisons, why did some of them move to Lincolnshire and who erected the memorial in St Chad’s?
John and Edward Harrison were brothers, sons of Richard and Agnes Harrison of Bankfield in Singleton, baptised at Kirkham parish church, John in 1753 and Edward in 1759.
John Harrison and Ellen Bickerstaffe married around 1780. Five children were born to them the youngest Margaret dying in 1790 shortly before her first birthday. Their mother Ellen died six months later on September 20th 1790, leaving John with four young children aged between 3 and 9 years. Edward Harrison, John’s brother, had trained as a doctor in Edinburgh and had moved from Poulton to Horncastle in Lincolnshire. On September 24th 1790, just four days after the death of his sister-in-law Ellen, Edward returned to Poulton to marry Ellen’s sister Margaret at St Chad’s. After their marriage Edward and Margaret went to live in Horncastle. When John Harrison died in 1796 his three remaining children aged 15, 11 and 9 were orphaned. In his will he had i nstructed his executors , William Harrison, his brother-in-law [presumably father of Elizabeth] and John Bonney of Blackpool, to ensure the ”maintenance, education and support of his children”. A decision was made to send them to Horncastle where they grew up in the household of their uncle and aunt, Edward and Margaret Harrison.
What attracted Edward Harrison to make the move from Poulton to Horncastle is unclear, but once there he appears to have become involved with two major figures of the day. The family of Alfred Lord Tennyson hailed from a small group of villages in the Lincolnshire Wolds and Edward Harrison MD appears to have been the family physician, dealing with the recurring bouts of depression which afflicted several members of the Tennyson family. Tennyson family papers and letters record the high regard in which the family held Edward Harrison.
Also in Horncastle at the time was Sir Joseph Banks, explorer and botanist, President of the Royal Society, appointed by the King to set up Kew Botanical Gardens and companion of Captain Cook on his voyages to Australasia. Banks had a house in Horncastle and a family home at nearby Revesby Abbey. It seems likely that Harrison would have served as Banks’ physician. The Horncastle Dispensary, of which Joseph Banks was the president, was established by public subscription in December 1789 next door to the workhouse and was served for more than thirty years, from 1791 if not before, by Edward Harrison. Patients came to the Dispensary from as far away as Boston, Grantham and Lincoln. From 1804 to 1821 Harrison had a private lunatic asylum where he lived in West Street. He was involved in the formation of the Lincolnshire Benevolent Medical Society in 1804 and was its first President.
Edward died a widower in 1838 at his home in Cavendish Square London and was buried in St Mary’s church Horncastle. There the family are commemorated by a plaque on the south side of the centre aisle recording that Edward is buried there with his wife Margaret and the three children of his late brother John. This memorial and the one in St Chad’s were both erected by Edward’s nephew Paul and niece Agnes Harrison
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Pat Allois, above, has recently completed work restoring the memorial to the Harrisons in St Chad’s parish church
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| Pat has also restored the six hatchments and the Royal Coat of Arms in St Chad’s |
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This plaque was commissioned by Horncastle Historical Society and commemorates the work of Dr Edward Harrison. It was erected on the wall of his home in April 2008. An entry on Dr Harrison is being prepared for inclusion in the Dictionary of National Biography |
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