Benjamin Harrison, V^[1]

1726 - 1791  (65 years)

• Name	Benjamin Harrison
  Suffix	V
  Birth	5 Apr 1726	Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	24 Apr 1791	, Charles City, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I47155	Master
  Last Modified	5 Apr 2025

  
  

  Father	Benjamin Harrison,   b. 11 Sep 1693, Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA d. 12 Jul 1745, , Charles City, Virginia, USA (Age 51 years)
  Mother	Ann Frances Carter,   b. 5 Dec 1704, Corotoman Plantation, Lancaster, Virginia, USA d. 1745, Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA (Age 40 years)
  Marriage	3 Oct 1722	, Charles City, Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F2027	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 5 Apr 1726 - Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA Death - 24 Apr 1791 - , Charles City, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  As he was about to sign the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, who was 6’4” and weighed 240 pounds, turned to his thin colleague Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and said, “I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hanged for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes and be with the angels, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.” Harrison’s gallows humor no doubt elicited nervous laughter, but the men who signed the Declaration had good reason to be concerned that they would be hanged if the Revolution failed, or if they fell into British hands. In January 1781, British General (and notorious traitor) Benedict Arnold was marching his army up the James River toward Richmond. Along the way he paid a visit to Berkeley, Harrison’s home in Charles City County. Alerted of Arnold’s approach, Harrison and his family had escaped. Denied the opportunity to capture Harrison, Arnold emptied Berkeley of all its furniture, paintings and other contents, piled them in the front yard of the home, and burned them. Admiring the house, he chose not to burn it down, deciding instead that he would keep it for himself as a spoil of war after the Revolution was crushed. Things did not turn out as Arnold had hoped, of course, and neither Benjamin Harrison nor Elbridge Gerry had to test the strength of a hangman’s rope. Harrison returned to Berkeley after Arnold’s raid. He was elected Virginia’s fifth governor in 1781 and two of his direct descendants (William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison) served as presidents of the United States.

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree.