William Harris (b. ? - d. circa 1820)
MSA SC 5496-050732
War of 1812 Claimant, Calvert County, Maryland
Biography:
William Harris resided in the All Saints Parish of Calvert County. His plantation, Duran, included "the Clifts," standing above Parker's Creek and overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.1 The 1800 census listed a wife and seven children in the household. The census for that year only recorded the names of the heads of households and the age brackets of dependents, so the names of Harris's wife and children are currently unknown.2 Calvert County marriage records no longer exist for that time period, within the Archives' holdings.3
Harris had twelve slaves working on his farm in 1800,4 and ten in 1810.5 On July 16, 1814, his slave Frisby Harris escaped to British troops.6 William Harris did not appear in the 1820 census for Calvert County, and was mentioned as deceased in 1822.7 Unfortunately, if Harris left a will, it no longer exists, since the Calvert County Courthouse burned down in the 1880s. On July 25, 1828, William Harris's estate received $280 in compensation for Frisby Harris.8
His family's Quaker roots dated back to the William Harris who had arrived
in America as a Scottish prisoner in 1662.9 He was likely among
the thousands of Scottish soldiers captured in a series of battles against
Sir Oliver Cromwell. Many of these prisoners were transported throughout
the New World, to destinations ranging from New England and Virginia to
Barbados.10 Around 1680, the Scottish-born Harris joined Francis
Billingsly, John Pardoe, and Richard Johns in purchasing land for a Quaker
meeting house in Calvert County.11 He also built Duran, the
estate on which his descendant was living in the early 1800s.12
1. GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL
(Proceedings), Liber HD 2, 1694-1706, [MSA S1071-11/12]. Available through
Archives of Maryland Online, Volume 23.
1.
Charles Francis Stein,
A History of Calvert
County, Maryland (Baltimore, MD: Published by the author, 1976) 270.
1.
Calvert County District 2, Simon J. Martenet,
Map of Calvert County, 1865, Huntingfield Collection MSA SC 1399-1-75.
2. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for William Harris, 1800, Calvert County, All Saints Parish, Page 8, Line 6 [MSA SM61-25, M 2054-4].
3. CALVERT COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Marriage Licenses) 1867-1886, T1854.
4. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for William Harris, 1800, Calvert County, All Saints Parish, Page 8, Line 6 [MSA SM61-25, M 2054-4].
5. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for William Harris, 1810, Calvert County, district not stated, Page 7b, 5th line from bottom [MSA SM61-45, M 2060-1].
6. Claim of William Harris, Case 773, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
7. Ibid.
8. Claim of William Harris, No. 773. RG 76. Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration. Records of the Mixed Claims Commission: Miscellaneous Records. Ca. 1814-28, 7 vols., Entry 185, Vol. 10 of 11 (International Claims). National Archives, College Park.
9. David Dobson, Scottish
Emigration to Colonial America, 1607-1785 (Athens, GA: University of
Georgia Press, 1994) 55.
9.
Charles A. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish: or, The
Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America, Vol. 2 (New
York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902) 6.
9.
Dobson,
Barbados and Scotland, Links 1627-1877
(Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2005) i.
10. Ailene W. Hutchins, Calvert County, Maryland, Early Land Records, (Prince Frederick, MD: Printed by the author, 1992) 311.
11. GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL (Proceedings),
Liber HD 2, 1694-1706, [MSA S1071-11/12]. Available through Archives of
Maryland Online, Volume 23.
11. Stein
270.
12. Hutchins 311.
Return to William Harris's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|