237 
H A R 
works were collected by his only furviving foil the earl 
of Malmelbury, and publifhed in two volumes quarto, 
in 1801, vvith an account of his father’s life prefixed, as 
noticed above ; and from which this article is drawn. 
HAR'RIS (William), a protefiant diffenting- minifter 
of eminent abilities and character, born-at Salifbur.y 
about the year 1720 ; and afterwards refided at Honiton 
in Devonfliire. On September 20, 1765, the degree of 
D. D. was conferred on him by the univerfity of Glaf- 
goW. He publifhed' an Hiftorical and Critical Account 
of the Lives of James I. Charles 1 . and Oliver Crom¬ 
well, in 5 vols. 8vo. after the manner of Bayle. He alfo' 
wrote the life of Hugh Peters; befides many fugitive 
pieces in fupport of liberty and virtue. All his works 
have been well received ;, and thofe who differ from him 
in principle, dill value him in point ofinduftry and fruit- 
fulnefs. This character is given in the words of his mu¬ 
nificent patron Mr. Hollis, who had prefented him with 
many valuable books relative to the fubjeCts of his hit. 
tories. But the doctor’s works are differently fpoken 
of by others. They certainly have none of the viva¬ 
city which infpired Bayle; and in the judgment of dif- 
pallionate readers, impartiality is fometimes violated. 
He died at Honiton, Feb. 4, 1770. 
HAR'RIS,, a peninfula of Scotland,, joined to what is 
called the Iflana of Louis, by a narrow irthmus. The 
country is wild, and in general uncultivated : the high 
lands are moftly covered with heath ; there is plenty of 
gAmd, and the lochs and bays on the coaft abound with 
fifh. 
HAR'RISBURG, a town of United America, in the 
fiate of North Carolina : forty-feven miles weft of Ha¬ 
lifax. 
HAR'RISBURG, apoft-towU of the American States, 
and the capital of Dauphine county, Pennfylvanla, (mi¬ 
nted on the north-eaft bank of Sulquehannah river. It 
is laid out regularly, and contains about three hundred 
houfes ; of which leveral are neat and convenient; fome 
of brick, and others of ftone. By the cenfus of 1789, it 
contained only 130 houfes, a ftone.gaol, and a German 
church. At that period it had been fettled but three 
years. It is 107 miles weft-north-weft of Philadelphia, 
fifty-three weft-fouth-weft of Reading, and leventeen 
eaft-north-eaft of Carlifle. 
HAR'RISBURGH, or Lou'isburgh, a town of 
United America, in the ftate of Pennfylvania: eighty 
miles weft of Philadelphia. Lat. 40. 17. N. Ion. 76. 53. 
W. Greenwich. 
HAR'RISON (William), a writer much efteemed by 
the literati of his time, was fellow of New-college, Ox¬ 
ford, and tutor to one of the duke of Queenfbury’s fons. 
In this employment he attracted the favour of Dr. Swift, 
whole folicitations with Mr. St. John obtained for him 
t’he fecretarylhip to lord Raby, ambaffador authe Hague, 
afterwards earl of Strafford. An interefting letter of 
his whilft at Utrecht, dated Dec. 16, 17x2, is printed in 
dean Swift’s works. Mr. Harrifon, who did not long 
enjoy his riling fortune, was difpatched to London with 
the barrier-treaty ; and died Feb. 14, 1712. Swift, in 
his Stella, laments his lofs with the moll unaffeCted fince- 
rity. Mr. Tickel has mentioned him with refpeCt in his 
ProfpeCt of Peace. Dr. Birch, who has give'n a curious 
note on Mr. Harrifon’s Letter to Swift,, has confounded 
him with Thomas Harrifon, M.A. of Queen’s-college. 
In Nicholses SeleCt Collection are fome pleafing fpeci- 
mens of his poetry ; which, with Woodftock-Park in 
Dodfley’s Collection, and an Ode to the Duke of Marl¬ 
borough, 1707, in Duncombe’s Horace, are all the poe¬ 
tical .writings that are known of this excellent young 
man.—There was another William Harrifon, author of 
The Pilgrim, or the happy Convert, a Paftoral Trage¬ 
dy, 1709. 
HAR'RISON (John), the accurate and celebrated in¬ 
ventor of the famous time-keeper for afcertaining the longi¬ 
tude at fea, and alfo of the compound, or, as it is com, 
Vol. IX. No.’581, r ’ * 
H A R 
mbnly called, the gridiron pendulum ; wasborn at Fotilby, 
in the parilh of Wragby, near PontefraCt, in Yorkfliirc, 
in 1693. The vigour of his natural abilities, if not even 
ftrengthened. by the want of education, which confined 
his attention to few objects, at leaft amply comper.fated 
the deficiences of it; as fully appeared from the afto- 
nifiling progrefs he made in that branch of mechanics to 
which he devoted his time. His father was a carpenter, 
in which profelfion the fon affifted; occafionally alfo, 
according to the mifcellaneous practice of Country ar- 
tifts, furveying land, and repairing clocks and watchesi 
He was, from his early childhood,, attached to any ma¬ 
chinery moving by wheels; and while he lay fick of the 
fmall-pox about the fixtli year of 1,is age, nothing could 
pacify him but a watch placed open upon his pillow, 
that he might amufe himfelf by contemplating the move¬ 
ment. In 1700, he removed with his father to Barrow, 
in Lincolnlhire; where, though his opportunities of ac¬ 
quiring knowledge were very few, he eagerly improved 
every incid'ent from which.he might colled information ; 
frequently employing all or .great part of his nights in 
'writing or drawing : and lie always acknowledged his 
obligations to a clergyman who came every Sunday to 
officiate in the neighbourhood, who lent him a manu- 
lcript copy of profeffor Saunderfon’s Lectures; Which 
he carefully and neatly tranferibed, with all the dia¬ 
grams. His native genius exerted itfelf fuperior to 
thefe folitary difadvantages; for’ in .1726, he had con : 
ftruCted two clocks, moftly of wood, in which he ap¬ 
plied the efcapement and' compound pendulum of his 
own invention: thefe furpafied'every thing then made, 
fcarcely erring a fecond of time in a month. 
In 1728, he came up to London with the drawings of - 
a machine for determining the longitude at fea, in ex¬ 
pectation of being, enabled to execute one by order of 
the board of longitude. Upon application to Dr. Hal¬ 
ley, he referred him to Mr. George Graham ; who, dif- 
covering he had uncommon merit, advifed him to make 
his machine before he applied to the bbard of longitude. 
He returned home to perform this talk;’ and in 1735 
came to London again with hisfirft machine ; with which 
he was fent to Lilbon the next year for a trial of its pro¬ 
perties. In this ftiort voyage, he-correCted the. dead 
reckoning about a degree and a half; a fuccefs that 
proved the means of his receiving both public and pri¬ 
vate encouragement. About the year 1739, he com¬ 
pleted his fecond machine, of a conftruCtion much more 
limple than the former, and which anfwered much bet¬ 
ter : this, though not fent to fea, recommended Mr. 
Harrifon yet ftronger to the patronage of his private 
friends and of the public. His third machine, which 
he produced in 1749, was ftill lefs complicated than the 
fecond, and fuperior in accuracy, as erring only three or 
four feconds in a week. This he conceived to be the ne 
plus ultra of his attempts; but in an endeavour to im¬ 
prove pocket-watches, he found the principles he ap¬ 
plied to furpafs his expectations fo much, as to encou¬ 
rage him to make his fourth time-keeper, which is in 
the form of a pocket-watch, about lix inches diameter. 
With this time-keeper his fon made two voyages, the 
on,e to Jamaica, and the other to Barbadoes: in both 
which experiments it corrected the longitude within the 
neareft limits required by the aCt of the 12th of queen 
Anne ; and the inventor therefore,, at different times, 
though not without infinite trouble, received the pro- 
pofed reward of twenty thoufand pounds. Thefe four 
machines were given up to the board of longitude. The 
three former were not of any life, as all the advantages 
gained by making them were comprehended in the laft; 
they were worthy, however, of being carefully preferved 
as mechanical curiofities, in which might be traced the 
gradations of ingenuity executed with the moft delicate 
workmanfliip : for which purpofe they were depofited 
in the royal obfervatory at Greenwich. The fourth, 
machine, emphatically diltinguiflied by the name of The 
3 P time - 
