Daniel Harrison (merchant)

Countersett Hall, birthplace of Daniel Harrison and later called The Courts, today[1]

He was the son of Reuben Harrison and his wife Sarah Thompson (or Margaret), born at Countersett in the Yorkshire Dales into an old Quaker family. He was the eldest of a family of 13 children. While he was still young, around 1802, his parents moved to Rochdale in Lancashire.[3][4][5] Daniel Harrison of Edgworth was admitted to Ackworth School in 1807.[6]

Harrison became a Liverpool coffee dealer.[7] He married in 1823, at which time he was living in Everton, Liverpool.[8] He is later recorded as being in business in Liverpool before 1825.[9] A partnership between Daniel Harrison and Joseph Ecroyd of Liverpool, as coffee dealers, was dissolved in 1834.[10] He was for a time in a partnership with Octavius Waterhouse, as wholesale tea and coffee dealers. After losses, caused by an investment by Waterhouse, it was dissolved in 1840.[7][11]

With his brother Smith Harrison (born 1818), and Joseph Crosfield, Daniel founded Harrisons & Crosfield in Liverpool, in 1844. The new partner Crosfield (1821–1879) was also from a Quaker background. He had worked for Harrison & Waterhouse, and was the son of George Crosfield (1785–1847), and nephew of Joseph Crosfield (1792–1844) of Warrington, the noted soap manufacturer.[7][12][13][14] The company's working capital was £8,000.[15]

At that time Harrison's family lived in Birkenhead. In 1849 they moved north, to Egremont;[16] a family connection to the area existed, since their maternal grandfather Charles Wood (see below) constructed an ironworks there.[17] From the early days, Smith Harrison attended the tea sales in London's Mincing Lane. In Liverpool, the company did business at 6 Temple Place.[18]

In 1855, the company migrated to London, which had become the destination of the tea clippers. The business had prospered from the start, and became one of the top dealers in tea.[12][2] The premises were at 3 Great Tower Street. One of Harrison's sons, and two of Joseph Crosfield's sons, in time became directors.[18] Marshalls in Romford was leased as the family home, after the move.[19]

There were further moves of the Harrison family. The parents joined some of the girls for a time in Dieppe, in 1859. They moved back, to Highgate in London. There was a period in Leicester.[19]

Around 1864, they moved again to Beckenham, Kent. In later life, Harrison resided there.[19][20]

Harrison married in 1823 Anna Botham of Uttoxeter: of Anna's two sisters, Mary became Mary Howitt on marrying William Howitt, and Emma married a first cousin of Daniel, Harrison Alderson. Daniel and Anna had eight children.[8][3][19] They included:

• Mary, the eldest, friend of Octavia Hill.[21]
• Charles, the eldest son, married in 1855 Mary Jeffreys, daughter of Julius Jeffreys.[22] He was a director of Harrisons & Crosfield, dying in 1916.[18]
• Margaret Ann (1827–1899), married in 1858 Ellis Yarnall.[23]
• Alfred (1832–1891), cleric.[24]
• Anna Jemima, married in 1871 James Macdonell.[25]
• Agnes, married in 1873 Sir John Macdonell.[26]
• Lucy Harrison (1844–1915), headmistress, the youngest.[19]

Anna Harrison (1797–1881) was the daughter of Samuel Botham and his wife Anna Wood. She wrote for The Kaleidoscope and The Dial of Love.[27] Anna Wood was the youngest child of Charles Wood the ironmaster, by his second wife.[28]

• Illustrations of the directors of Harrisons & Crosfield