Richard [Nicholls] Harison / Harrison - Onondaga and Oswego ...

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Historians generally of New York city, covering the period of Mr. Harison's activities, refer to him as "that great lawyer" or "that great man." He succeeded James Kent as recorder, "and his refinement and urbanity were as conspicuous on the bench as in private life." As bearing upon his scholarship, it is told that, naturally a student, he was a thorough master of Greek, Latin and French, and a reader of widest range: even after reaching his seventy-second year, he took up the study of Hebrew, and mastered that language. Besides having been recorder of New York, he was secretary of the board of regents of the University of New York from 1787 to 1790; member of Assembly in 1787 and 1789: a member in 1788 with Hamilton, Jay and others of the convention which adopted the federal constitution; and from 1789 to 1801 United States attorney for the district of New York. Through the kindness of his great grandson, William Beverley Harison, I am privileged to have before me as I write a photographic copy of his commission as United States attorney, signed by George Washington, and also a photographic copy of a personal letter from President Washington, transmitting the commission, from which I quote: " The high importance of the judicial system in our national government makes it an indispensable duty to select such characters to fill the several offices in it as would discharge their respective duties with honor to themselves and advantage to the country." Mr. Harison was nominated to the Senate by President Washington to be judge of the United States district court, but declined the office. He died in New York December 7, 1829. Married 4 Sep 1783: Richard Harrison; Frances Ludlow Recorder of New York: Richard Harison 15 Feb 1798-25 Aug 1801 The New York genealogical and biographical record (Volume 72), page 176. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/new-york-genealogical-and-biographical-society/the-new-york-genealogical-andbiographical-record-volume-72-ywe/page-22-the-new-york-genealogical-and-biographical-record-volume-72-ywe.shtml Richard Harison [a son of a Tory councilor of New York } is not unknown, and I would merely mention him, but I find his name does not appear in Drake's Biographical Dictionary ; nor is it in Hough's Biographical Notes, which claims to take up the names omitted from Allen and Drake. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography also fails to mention him. He was vestryman, Trinity Church, NY , 1783, 1788-1811. Warden, 1811-27. Secretary of the Board of Regents, July, 1784, to 1790. A lawyer and a federalist, he was appointed by President Washington United States District Attorney for New York, and acted in politics with Hamilton, Jay, and Livingston against Clinton and Burr. In 1788-89 he was member of the New York Legislature, and in the former year was also member of the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution, where his votes were in favor of its adoption. He was made Recorder of the City of New York February 15, 1798, and held this important office till August 25, 1801. He had sons and grandsons who graduated from the College. He received degree of D.C.L. from Oxford University, England. “The law practice of Alexander Hamilton: documents and commentary, Volume 5,” by Julius Goebel, page 16. http://books.google.com/books?id=lhByzTg62dEC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=%22richard+harison%22+%22robert+r+livingston%22 &source=bl&ots=vISe4YHwdh&sig=wN9aGX8AFtwtdVSXTrVeUEETj2E&hl=en&ei=CE2nTKONAoP88AaclLH2DA&sa=X&oi=book_ result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22richard%20harison%22%20%22robert%20r%20living ston%22&f=false . . . By the Chancellor: . . . Richard Harison . . . on behalf of the Chancellor may have talked to Duane [about a land usage dispute regarding the building of grist mills] following the exchange of letters in late 1779 . . .Morgan Lewis, brother-in-law of the Chancellor and one time a law partner of Richard Harison may have come in connection with the dispute . . . certainly from 183 onward Lewis was aiding the Chancellor in prosecuting ejectment actions against neighbors on the south boundary of Clermont. In an unsuccessful attempt to enlist the help of John Jay, friend of his youth, and early associate in law practice, the Chancellor wrote: “In a dispute which has unhappily arisen between me & the up[p]er Manor . . . your advice would be of singular use to me if (as I suppose) you should not return to the bar” {draft letter, 25 Jan 1784, Robert R Livingston Papers). [John] Jay’s* polite inattention to the request owed something to his having married a manor Livingston (Sarah, sister of Brockholst Livingston) as well as to his continuance in a diplomatic and political career. . . In spite of his overtures to the manor, the Chancellor continued to claim the right to build mills. On 5 Apr 1788, he retained Aaron Burr. Six day later, Richard Harison delivered an opinion to the Chancellor in which he largely agreed with “Mr. Morris” (Gouverneur Morris) on the questions submitted to counsel. . . * Note: John Jay entered King’s College (later Columbia) in 1760 at the age of fourteen. . . Among his classmates were some of the sons of New York’s elite: Robert R Livingston . . . and Richard Harison [class of 1764].” The Magazine of American history with notes and queries, Volume 2,” page 376. http://books.google.com/books?id=q30FAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1- PA396&dq=%22richard+harrison%22+%22robert+r+livingston%22&hl=en&ei=NVunTIydNML88AbioGRDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22richard%20harrison%22%20%22r obert%20r%20livingston%22&f=false Robert R. Livingston was the Chancellor of the State; he also had served in various positions of high trust: as member of the Assembly, delegate to the Continental Congress, and Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Confederation. The influential family of Livingston was still further represented by Philip, sent up by Westchester; Gilbert, by Duchess; and incidentally by James Duane, who had married a daughter of Robert Livingston. The record of James Duane, who had also been in Congress, was illustrious. He had served in the Colonial Assembly, in the first and second Congress, as Senator of the State, and in the full tide of popularity as the first Mayor of New York. The names of the remaining three, although less widely known out of the State, commanded universal respect within its borders. Isaac Roosevelt, an early patriot and member of the Provincial Congress; Richard Harrison, an eminent lawyer and one of the Commissioners appointed to arrange with the British for the evacuation of New York in 1783 http://www.northcountryny.com/richard_harison.htm On September 24, 1789, President George Washington signed into law the Judiciary Act, which marked the beginning of our national system of American law. Two days later, the President commissioned Richard Harison as the first "United States Attorney 16
for the New York District." On November 3, 1789, thirteen weeks before the Supreme Court held its first session, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York opened its courtroom in a market building, located at the foot of Broad Street in lower Manhattan. One of its first orders of business was to record Richard Harison's commission as the United States Attorney for this District. By the spring of 1790, the United States Attorney's Office had brought successfully its first criminal and civil cases before a New York Federal court. Harison received his Columbia degrees in the same years as John Jay, and they each received an LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh, 1792. He was Secretary of the Regents of New York State, 1784-1790; vestryman, warden, and comptroller of Trinity Church, 1783, 1788-1827, where he is buried; Delegate to the New York Constitutional Convention; Member, New York Assembly, 1788-1789; Trustee, Columbia College, 1788-1829; U.S. District Attorney for New York State, appointed by George Washington, 1789-1801; Recorder, New York City, 1798-1801. His second wife, Frances, was daughter of George Ludlow, jurist and loyalist, and niece of Daniel Ludlow, merchant and banker. The correspondence [in his papers] consists of letters from Richard Harison to his wife, Frances, 1790-1794, from his trips to Albany and one to Philadelphia. There seem to be periodic meetings with various well-known legal figures including Egbert Benson, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Abraham Ten Broeck, Morgan Lewis, and William North, who are mentioned in the letters. Two letters from Princeton and Philadelphia, Jan.-Feb. 1794, have interesting reference to Citizen Genet. Of his wife's letters to him, from New York, sixteen were while he was in Poughkeepsie at the Constitutional Convention in 1788, and three letters, 1783-1784, were sent to him in New Jersey while she was attending to family affairs in New York during his exile from the city. The manuscripts include his commonplace book, entitled "Extracts from various authors, upon several subjects," [after 1763]-1781, and ten genealogical and biographical records from his family papers. “Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns . . .” by Frederick Joel Seaver, page 396. http://books.google.com/books?id=FNh4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA396&lpg=PA396&dq=%22richard+harison%22+%22macomb%22&sou rce=bl&ots=t13E2Vty_M&sig=7Fj13AzUefZasBrxPVM9DVFz9Bc&hl=en&ei=E3inTOqPCMT38AbgufjwDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct =result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22richard%20harison%22%20%22macomb%22&f=false Malone was erected from Chateaugay March 2, 1805, at Harison, so called because Richard Harison (never spelled with two rs) was a leading member of the Macomb syndicate, and consisted originally of all of Great Tract No. 1 of the Macomb purchase and the St. Regis Indian reservation. Yet quite inexplicably a section of the act of 1808 by which the county was created annexed to Harison "all those parts of Plattsburgh and Peru lying within the county of Franklin west of the old military tract," when, as a matter of fact, such parts had been detached by the act of 1805. Thus all of the county's nineteen towns except Bellmont, Burke, Chateaugay and Franklin are offshoots, directly or indirectly, from Malone, which originally had an area of more than three-quarters of a million acres, exclusive of water. It now includes only two townships, aggregating 63,200 of assessed acreage. The name Harison was changed in 1808 to Ezraville as a mark of Mr. Harison's respect for his friend, Ezra L'Hommedieu * of Long Island, and on June 12, 1812, Ezraville became Malone. For nearly three-quarters of a century no one appears to have speculated concerning the origin or derivation of the latter name, but in 1885 Vice-President Wheeler believed that he had ascertained that it had been taken in compliment to Malone Constable, assumed to have been a daughter of William Constable. That theory was generally accepted as correct until Dr. C. W. Collins, undertaking investigation of the matter for the Historical Society, found that there had never been a Malone Constable, and learned from a descendant of Richard Harison that the name had been given to the township for Edmond Malone, the Irish Shakespearian scholar and critic, who was Mr. Harison's friend. The change of 1812 was therefore merely application of the name of the township to the whole town; the other township (number nine) was called Shelah. Each of the townships in great tract number one of the Macomb purchase had not only a number, but its distinctive name also; and, the original owners having been almost all Irishmen, the names were for the most part those of places in Ireland. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_L'Hommedieu Ezra L'Hommedieu (August 30, 1734 – September 27, 1811) was an lawyer and statesman from Southold, NY. He was a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1779 to 1783 and again in 1788. He had also served in the State Assembly, among other local offices, and was an author of the Empire State's Constitution. Born into a Long Island family of Dutch and French Huguenot ancestry, he had practiced law in New York City after his graduation from Yale in 1754. Widely respected for his integrity and intelligence, he had helped to design the lighthouse at Montauk Point, a project on which he advised George Washington, and had also developed methods of scientific farming, including the use of seashells to fertilize soils. He was serving as Regent of the State University of New York when he died at age 77. He was buried near the grave of his first wife, the former Charity Floyd, whose brother was General William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. “Irish-American historical miscellany: Relating largely to New York city . . .” by John Daniel Crimmins, page 206. http://books.google.com/books?id=EqbBaCqEzfoC&pg=PA206&dq=%22richard+harison%22+%22macomb%22&hl=en&ei=VXunT N_rNIKB8gb3- LSjDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22richard%20harison%22%20%22ma comb%22&f=false "The great land proprietors, Dutch, English and Huguenot, and a few rich merchants of Manhattan, made up the aristocracy. In the upper middle class, Scotchmen, Yankees, a few Welshmen and many Irishmen were rapidly achieving social and commercial importance. * * * In no American colony were these Irishmen more prominent than in New York. Three of them, Constable, Duane and Macomb, came with their families to the northern settlements. 17
Page 1 and 2: Richard [Nicholls] Harison / Harris
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