groundlessly reported that Harrison had made a secret agreement with the royalists (Thurloe, i. 749, iii. 345). Fresh movements among the anabaptists roused anew the suspicions of the government, and on 15 Feb. 1655 Harrison was arrested and sent prisoner to Carisbrooke Castle (ib. iii. 160; Mercurius Politicus, 15–22 Feb. 1655; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655, p. 112). Many interesting details relating to his imprisonment are recorded by his fellow-sufferer John Rogers (Rogers, Life and Opinions of a Fifth-Monarchy Man, 1867, pp. 257–61). In March 1656 Harrison was released and allowed to live at Highgate with his family (The Public Intelligencer, 31 March and 7 April 1656; Rogers, p. 277). In April 1657 Venner's conspiracy was discovered, but though the evidence of the conspirators themselves proved that Harrison had refused to take part in it, he was again for a time under arrest (Thurloe, vi. 164, 185). However, in February 1658 a more dangerous plot came to light, in which Harrison was said to be deeply implicated, and he was again sent to the Tower (Burton, Diary, iii. 449, 494; Mercurius Politicus, 4–11 Feb. 1657–8). In the summer of 1659 there were rumours of an intended anabaptist insurrection to be headed by Harrison, but he seems to have taken no part whatever in the political movements of that troublous year (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 479, 484). His inactivity was doubtless due largely to the injury his health had sustained by wounds and imprisonments. At his execution his hands and knees were seen to tremble. ‘It is by reason of much blood I have lost in the wars,’ said Harrison, ‘and many wounds I have received in my body, which caused this shaking and weakness in my nerves. I have had it this twelve years’ (Collection of Lives and Speeches, &c., p. 18). When the Restoration approached, Harrison refused either to give a verbal pledge not to disturb the government, or to save his life by flight.’ ‘If I had been minded to run away,’ said he, ‘I might have had many opportunities. But being so clear in the thing, I durst not turn my back nor step a foot out of the way by reason I had been engaged in the service of so glorious and great a God’ (ib. p. 19). Accordingly, early in May 1660 he was arrested at his own house in Staffordshire by Colonel John Bowyer, and committed to the Tower (Ludlow, ed. 1751, p. 345; Commons' Journals, viii. 22, 39). He was one of the seven persons originally excepted from the Act of Indemnity (June 5), and was brought to trial on 11 Oct. 1660. In his defence Harrison justified the king's execution, and pleaded that he had acted in the name of the parliament of England and by their authority. ‘Maybe I might be a little mistaken, but I did it all according to the best of my understanding, desiring to make the revealed will of God in his holy scriptures a guide to me’ (Trials of the Regicides, p. 50). He was condemned to death, and was executed at Charing Cross on 13 Oct. 1660. On the scaffold itself, as throughout his trial, Harrison exhibited much courage and enthusiasm. ‘Where is your good old cause now?’ said a scoffer in the crowd. Harrison, with a smile, clapped his hand on his breast and said, ‘Here it is, and I am going to seal it with my blood’ (Lives, Speeches, &c., p. 15). Pepys, who witnessed his death, dwells on the cheerfulness with which he suffered, while Nicholas complains of the hardness of his heart (Diary, 13 Oct.; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 312). Among the Fifth-monarchy men Harrison was regarded as a martyr; and a report spread that he was soon to rise again, judge his judges, and restore the kingdom of the saints. To this prophecy Cowley refers in the ‘Cutter of Coleman Street,’ iii. 12 (see also Pepys, 13 Oct. 1660; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 569).
[Lives of Harrison are contained in A Complete Collection of the Lives, Speeches, and Prayers of those Persons lately Executed, by a Person of Quality, 1661; Wood's Fasti, 1649, ed. Bliss, pt. ii. p. 130; Noble's Lives of the Regicides, 1798, i. 306–36; Godwin's Commonwealth of England, iv. 379; Trial of Charles I and some of the Regicides, with biographies of Bradshaw, Ireton, Harrison, and others, 1832, Murray's Family Library, vol. xxxi.; Mr. Inderwick's Side Lights on the Stuarts, pp. 284–90. Portraits of Harrison are to be found in Mr. Inderwick's book, p. 284, and in the 1717 edition of Clarendon's Rebellion. Other authorities as above.]
HARRISON, THOMAS (1693–1745), baptist minister and poet, born in 1693, was the son of Thomas Harrison, the minister of a baptist congregation meeting at Loriners' Hall, London. He was first called to the ministry by the congregation of baptists to which he belonged, meeting in Joiners' Hall. From 1715 to 1729 he was the pastor of the particular baptist church in Little Wild Street. In 1729 he conformed to the church of England; through the influence of relatives obtained orders, and was inducted into the vicarage of Radcliffe-on-the-Wreke, Leicestershire. He preached and published a sermon in justification of his change of views, which was answered by the famous ‘Orator’ Henley [see Henley, John] in a tract entitled ‘A Child's Guide for the Rev. Thomas Har--
