Were Robert and George Harrison Related? A Scott Township Connection?
Research Note by Wesley Johnston
Last Updated 10 December 2012
Overview: The Possible Connection
Robert Harrison lived on Concession 1 of Reach Township in Ontario County at the time of the 1851 census, which was actually taken in 1852. He had been born about 1801 in Ireland and married 1828 in Canada (the marriage year given explicitly in the 1861 census of Ops Township of Victoria County, where Robert had moved his family.
One daughter, Mary Jane Harrison remained in Ontario County, appearing in the 1861 census of East Whitby Township (the township just south of the east half of Reach) as the hired servant of Allen and Frances Smith. Mary Jane married in 1864 with the widower Hiram Lamb of Manchester in Reach Township and lived there the rest of her life. So there remained a strong connection to Reach township for the Harrison family for many decades -- and in fact the connection continues today, since the Lamb family farm has operated at Manchester since 1854.
Robert's eldest daughter, Harriet Harrison, had married Richard Nugent in 1846, and they appear in the 1852 censos of Manvers Township (Durham County, adjacent to both Ontario and Victoria Counties) and then with her parents' family on the same page of the 1861 census of Ops. They remained in Ops in the 1871 and 1881 censuses. But Richard Nugent died in 1881. And in the 1891 census, his widow Harriet and two of her unmarried sons (John and Joseph) were living in Scott Township (Ontario County) with her married son Thomas and his wife Jenny. Scott Township is not adjacent to Reach Township, but is adjacent to the townships adjacent to Reach. To the west of Reach and south of Scott is Uxbridge Township. And to the north of Reach and east of Scott is Brock Township.
1891 Scott Township Census -Reuben Harrison-Harriet (Harrison) Nugent : search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1274&path=Ontario.Ontario+North.Scott.28
And this is where George Harrison enters the picture. Living next to the Nugents in 1891 in Scott Township is the family of Reuben B. Harrison, age 47 [thus born c 1844], born Ontario. The 1877 atlas of Scott Township (digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/ont-m-Scott.jpg) shows Reuben on the south half of Lot 26 of Concession VII, with many other Harrisons nearby.
The 1861 census shows Reuben's childhood family before he had married, spread across two pages:
- the bottom of http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1570&path=Canada+West.Ontario.524
- the top of search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1570&path=Canada+West.Ontario.525
His parents were George and Harriet Harrison, both born England c 1814-1819. Thus far, I have not found this family in the 1851/2 census but have not really searched for them in that census. Ancestry did not suggest any 1851/2 connection.
1891 Scott Township Census - Matilda Nugent in George Harrison, Jr, Household with Mary Jane Nugent nearby: search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1274&path=Ontario.Ontario+North.Scott.48
Yet another layer of connection shows up 20 images further on in the same Scott Township 1891 Census. Harriet (Harrison) Nugent's daughter Matilda is living in the home of Reuben Harrison's brother George Harrison -- and their father the 73-year-old widower George is the next person listed after Matilda.
So were Robert (1801 Ireland) and George (1819 Enland) related?
Considerations, Pro and Con
Clearly the different birth locations of Robert and George discourage speculation that they may have been brothers. I have seen a good deal of movement of families back from Northern Ireland to Scotland or the former border area of England. So the possibility that they were brothers cannot be ruled out on this basis alone.
Their age difference, about 18 years, was nearly a generation. So this too discourages the notion that they were brothers. But it also does not rule it out.
Clearly the strongest support for there being some kind of relationship is that Reuben Harrison and Harriet (Harrison) Nugent's families were living next to each other in 1891 -- and that Harriet's daughter Matilda was living in Reuben's brother George Harrison's house. It may simply have been a coincidence, so that it proves nothing. But something made Harriet or her son Thomas move their entire family all the way from Ops in Victoria County back to the area near Reach in Ontario County. And they definitely were doubly-connected to the family of George Harrison.