Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harrison, Thomas (1693-1745)
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 harrison,’ &c. Harrison died 30 March 1745, and was buried in St. Peter's churchyard at St. Albans. He was the author of ‘Poems on Divine Subjects, in two Parts,’ 12mo, pp. 84, London, 1719. Several of the hymns in this volume became popular, and were reprinted repeatedly in collections. He also published ‘Belteshazzar; or the Heroic Jew,’ 12mo, 1727. Several of his sermons were printed separately during his lifetime.
[J. Ivimey's Hist. of the Baptists, iii. 568; Baker's Biog. Dramat. p. 312; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 558; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 90, 139; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 382.]