e of the whole
house, Mr. Harrison, on the 10th of June, 1776, introduced the
resolution declaring the independence of the colonies, and on the
fourth day of July he reported the Declaration of Independence, of
which he was a signer. He was six feet in stature, corpulent, and of a
florid complexion. He was practical, energetic, frank, epicurean, gouty,
good-humored, fearless, and patriotic.[656:A]

The sons of the first Benjamin Harrison, of Berkley, were Benjamin,
signer of the Declaration; Charles, a general of the Revolution;
Nathaniel, Henry, Collier, and Carter H. From the last-mentioned are
descended the Harrisons of Cumberland. Benjamin Harrison, Jr., the
signer, married a Miss Bassett. Their children were Benjamin, Carter,
Bassett, member of congress, and William Henry, President of the United
States. One daughter married a Mr. Richardson, a second married first
William Randolph, of Wilton, and then Captain Richard Singleton; a third
married David Copeland, and a fourth married John Minge, of Weyanoke,
afterwards of Sandy Point. So far the Berkley branch of the Harrisons.

The second son of Benjamin Harrison, of Surrey, was Nathaniel. His
eldest son was of the same name, and his only son was Honorable Benjamin
Harrison, of Brandon, of the council at the same time with his relative
and namesake of Berkley at the commencement of the Revolution. This
Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon, was father of the late George Harrison,
and of William B. Harrison, of Brandon.

George Wythe was born in 1726, in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, on
the shore of the Chesapeake. From his maternal grandfather, Keith, a
Quaker, he inherited a taste for letters. His ancestor, Thomas Wythe,
was burgess for that county in 1718. The father of George was a prudent
farmer of estimable character.[656:B] George, the second son, losing his
father at an early age, enjoyed but limited advantages of school
education, and his early tuition was principally directed by his mother;
and it is related that he acquired a knowledge of the Latin classics
from her instructions.[656:C] Mr. Jefferson mentions that while young
Wythe was studying the Greek Testament, his mother held an English one
to aid him in the translation. It has been since inferred, from an
examination of his manuscripts, that this last was the only kind of
assistance that he received from her in the Latin and Greek. He studied
law under his uncle, John Lewis, of Prince George; but, upon t