Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harrison, Stephen
HARRISON, STEPHEN (fl. 1603), joiner and architect, is perhaps the ‘Stephen Harryson, son of Peter Harryson,’ who was baptised at St. Dionis Backchurch, London, on 25 May 1572 (Register). Otherwise he is known only through a very rare volume entitled ‘The Archs of Triumph Erected in honor of the High and mighty prince, James, the first of that name, King of England, and the sixt of Scotland, at his Maiesties Entrance and passage through his Honorable Citty & chamber of London, vpon the 15th day of march 1603. Invented and published by Stephen Harrison Joyner and Architect: and graven by William Kip.’ It is a thin folio, and ends with the colophon: ‘Imprinted at London by Iohn Windet, Printer to the Honourable Citie of London, and are to be sold at the Authors house in Lime-street, at the signe of the Snayle. 1604.’ An engraved title-page is followed by seven full-page engravings of the triumphal arches and nine leaves of descriptive text, contributed probably by Thomas Dekker and John Webster, whose names are attached to the odes with which the volume opens. The arches were seven in number, though only five were originally intended, and all except those erected by the ‘merchant strangers’ were designed by Harrison and erected under his supervision. Three hundred or more workmen were employed on them from the beginning of April to the end of August 1603, when, on account of the plague which was then raging in London, the state entry of the king was postponed, and the preparations discontinued until February 1604. The arches at West Cheap and Temple Bar were then added, and the whole completed within six weeks. Harrison's book is extremely rare, especially in the first state before the words ‘Are to be sould at the white horse in Popes head Alley, by John Sudbury, and George Humble,’ were added at the foot of the title-page. There are copies of the first issue in the Grenville Library, at the British Museum, and in the Huth and Britwell Libraries.
[Nichols's Progresses of King James the First, 1828, i. 328–99; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica, 1860–83, iii. 134–9; Cat. Huth Library, 1880, ii. 655.]