Edward George Harrison was the father of Arthur Dight Harrison and great grandfather of Jack Harrison.
Edward was born on 26th July 1827 in Abingdon, Hanover, Jamaica and baptised in 1828 in Manchester, Jamaica.
His father JOHN JOSEPH HARRISON, was the son of Jonathan Harrison Esq. and Sophia Bayford. In 1824 in Jamaica, John Joseph Harrison married Eliza Pleasure Swaby Butler (born 29.7.1803 in Jamaica). Eliza Butler (1803 – 1883) was the daughter of Thomas Butler (b. 1775) and Elizabeth Maria Swaby (1776 – 1861). The marriage of Edward’s parents effectively merged the local Jamaican agricultural plantocracy (the Butler/Swaby interest) with the British merchant elite.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/search/
The eight children of John Joseph Harrison and Eliza Butler:
- John Swaby (born 31.8.1823 Manchester Jamaica; died aft 1890 Jamaica) (DNA match)
- Ann Eliza (5.4.1824 Chatham Estate – 1859) married Archibald Montgomery Boyd (1811 – 1862) (DNA match)
- Thomas John (31.10.1825 Abingdon – 1984 Kingston) (DNA match)
- Edward George (1827 – 1881) married Mary Francis Dight (1837 – 1927) (DNA match)
- Ada (21.12.1831 Oldbury, Manchester – 1908 Melbourne) married Arthur Marriott Perkins (1824 – 1894) (DNA match) (in EGH Ledger)
- Constance (11.1.1835 Oldbury, Manchester – 1920)
- Charlotte (7.2.1841 Manchester – 1923 England)
- Georgiana Elizabeth (20.11.1844 Cedar Grove – 1859)
In March 1847 at the age of 19, Edward George Harrison had a daughter (possibly with Emma Fice?) Emma Christiana Harrison who was born at Airy Castle, Stony Hill St Andrews, Jamaica. Emma was discovered through a DNA match.
In March 1847 at the age of 19 he had a daughter (possibly with Emma Fice?) Emma Christiana Harrison (DNA match) who was born at Airy Castle, Stony Hill St Andrews, Jamaica.
This DNA match and record uncovers an earlier chapter in the life of Edward George Harrison before his 1853 departure for Australia, establishing his first documented child in Jamaica.
Emma Christiana was born at Airy Castle, located in the mountainous, elevated area of Stony Hill within St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica. Stony Hill was a highly sought-after district for wealthy West India merchant families and planters. Its higher elevation provided a cooler climate and a natural refuge from the tropical diseases (like yellow fever) that plagued the low-lying port city of Kingston. The Harrisons, Swabys, and Butlers held various property stakes and residential interests in these hills.
The record flags a relationship with Emma Fice as the possible mother. This union occurred six years before the birth of Edward’s son, George Theodore Harrison (born April 1853 to Maria Dundas), showing that Edward fathered children with different prominent local families during his young adult years in Jamaica.
Because this is a confirmed DNA match, it proves Emma Christiana’s descendants successfully carried this branch down through the generations. Historical records show her lineage remained deeply rooted in Jamaica; for example, civil registries index her son, Frank Audley Rutherford, being born to her in Kingston, Jamaica around 1887.
According to a letter Mary Harrison (née Dight) wrote to her grandson William Edward Harrison on 20.8.1918 Edward Harrison’s father “John Harrison had beautiful coffee estates and a great many slaves, but he was ruined by their emancipation.”
Edward’s mother Eliza Harrison returned to England from Jamaica and was paid by her son Edward from Melbourne.
At the age of 25, Edward left Jamaica on 5th Apr 1853
” Glentanner passengers, many of them highly respectable people consisting of ruined planters and landowners, who leave us merely because they have nothing to do.”
Savannah Courier, dated Kingston, 22.2.1853
The ship Glentanner left Kingston, Jamaica on April 10, 1853, and finally anchored in Port Melbourne on the stormy evening of September 27, 1853.
The historical context of this vessel, the voyage, and Edward’s passenger profile reveals several key details:
The official Australian Shipping Intelligence archives from September 28, 1853, definitively list “E. G. Harrison” as one of the chief cabin passengers arriving on the 610-ton ship Glentanner, under Captain C. S. Chapman. He traveled alongside other prominent families of the Jamaican planter class, including the Henriques, Roxburghs, Gregorys, and Nortons.
The Glentanner voyage was highly unusual and famous in maritime history. It was specifically chartered to act as a conveyance for the displaced white plantocracy and merchant families of Jamaica. Following the 1833 Emancipation Act, the subsequent labor crises, and the British Sugar Duties Act of 1846, many Jamaican plantations became completely bankrupt. Left with “nothing to do” and little remaining capital, these “highly respectable people”—the sons and daughters of old colonial families like the Swabys, Butlers, and Harrisons—banded together to escape their economic ruin by seeking a complete reset in the booming colony of Victoria.
Because it was a custom voyage routing from the Caribbean rather than the traditional London-to-Melbourne route, the Glentanner took a sweeping, multi-port trek across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The ship stopped at: Bermuda (May 9), Bahia, Brazil (July 2), Algoa Bay, South Africa (August 22) before making its final run across the Southern Ocean to Melbourne.
Edward George Harrison landed right at the peak of the Victorian Gold Rush, utilizing his remaining family connections and the capital saved from his father’s London merchant trusts to establish a new life away from the fallen plantation economy of Jamaica.
Edward Harrison has been included in a study of the legacy of Jamaican wealth in Australia with particular focus on the passengers of the Glentanner being researched by Nikki Henningham. This study is currently (2026) being conducted by Zoë Laidlaw, Professor of History, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Four days after Edward George Harrison’s departure from Jamaica, his son George Theodore Harrison (1853 – 1904) (DNA match) was born on 9th April 1853 in Kingston, Jamaica to Maria Dundas (1835 – 1918). George’s mother was Maria Dundas, daughter of Robert Dundas (1771 – 1851), son of Henry Dundas, First Viscount Melville of Scotland. (At the age of 64, Robert Dundas took advantage of a young black girl working in the kitchen household, and she begat Maria who appears to have been a free black because Robert took care of Maria financially, leaving money and land to her.)
Maria Dundas’s links to Jamaica stem directly from the extensive naval, military, and political appointments held by the powerful Dundas dynasty of Scotland in the British West Indies during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
While she was born in Jamaica in 1835, her presence there reflects a broader pattern of elite Scottish families dominating colonial administration, law, and maritime defence in Kingston. Her family’s primary structural links to the island include:
Her grandfather, Henry Dundas (1st Viscount Melville), wielded immense influence over Jamaica as the British Home Secretary and Secretary of State for War during the late 1700s. He closely managed British colonial policy in the Caribbean, dealing directly with Jamaican governors during volatile crises like the Second Maroon War. Because of this immense top-down political authority, the Dundas family was routinely granted lucrative administrative patronages and land-related favors across the island’s major parishes.
Her father, Robert Saunders Dundas (2nd Viscount Melville), served as the First Lord of the Admiralty for nearly two decades (1812–1830). In this supreme role, he controlled all Royal Navy ship deployments and official appointments at the Port Royal Naval Dockyard in Jamaica.
- Other close relatives, such as Captain George Dundas, actively commanded flagship vessels (like the HMS Elephant) tasked with patrolling Jamaican waters and protecting merchant trade networks.
- This massive naval footprint meant that branches of the Dundas family frequently lived in and operated out of the naval and administrative hubs of Kingston and Spanish Town.
The family frequently secured elite colonial postings. For instance, archival records document the Dundas family securing high-level judicial influence, such as the appointment of family associates to the role of Advocate General of Jamaica under the governorship of Lord Manchester. These positions allowed younger or extended branches of the Dundas lineage to embed themselves directly within Kingston’s ruling legal and political circles.
Because the Dundas family sat at the absolute peak of British colonial governance, their daughters and relatives living in Kingston interacted directly with the wealthiest local merchant-factors and landowners—including the Harrisons, Swabys, and Butlers. It was this shared elite colonial social circle that ultimately led to the relationship between Maria Dundas and the young West India merchant heir, Edward George Harrison, resulting in the birth of George Theodore Harrison in Kingston in April 1853.
The birth of George Theodore Harrison on April 9, 1853, means his mother, Maria Dundas, gave birth in Kingston, Jamaica, right at the exact moment the Harrison family was liquidating their colonial assets and packing their lives to escape a collapsing plantation economy.
George was discovered through a DNA match, with his background from this match:
“George Theodore Harrison was my great-great grandfather. D.W. is Dorothy Harrison Williams, who was George’s grand-daughter. She passed last August at the age of 102. Yvonne is my cousin here in NYC. George was her great-grandfather. I had heard stories about Edward Harrison, and finding the DNA match with the Australian branch helped correct some of the misconceptions that became distorted over time. It was Sue Brogden’s profile that helped me clear much up. I have not seen Julie Munday among the DNA matches, so will look now. Interesting that Mary Dight came from a famous family. It would be interesting to know that history. George’s mother was Maria Dundas, daughter of Robert Dundas, who was son of Henry Dundas, First Viscount Melville of Scotland. He is a bit notorious though. lol. Robert took advantage of a young black girl working in the kitchen household, and she begat Maria. I think she must have been a free black because he took care of the child financially, leaving money and land to her.”
George Theodore Harrison (1853 – 1904)
Edward arrived in Melbourne on 28th September 1853:
September 27.-Glentanner,Ship, 610 tons, C. S Chapman, from Jamaica 10th April, via Bermuda 9th May, Bahia 2nd July, and Algoa Bay 22nd August. Passenger- E. G. Harrison
The Argus, Wednesday 28th September 1853
Edward became a Bank Inspector for the Bank of Victoria.
Thirty year old Edward married twenty year old MARY FRANCES DIGHT on 18.3.1858 at St Peter’s Church of England Church in Albert Street, East Melbourne.
On the 18th at St. Peter’s Church, by the Rev.H. H. P. Handfield, Edward George, third son of the late John Harrison, Esq., of the Island of Jamaica, to Mary Frances, third daughter of John Dight, Esq., of this city.
Their family bible still exists as does the family silver.
Also in existence is a ledger penned by Edward Harrison from January 1872 to December 1881 (he died August 1881) that confirms his astute knowledge of banking, shares, land purchase, insurance, money lending and importing. In 1872, Edward George Harrison made an initial deposit in to the “Orient Bank Corporation of Melbourne” of over £12000, which in those days was a very substantial amount.
Edward appears to have managed the money of most of his relatives, including the Dights, purchasing the Dight’s Flinders Lane Property on 22/5/1878 for 200 pounds and reselling it 6 months later for 287 pounds, being involved in the sale of Dight’s Falls and was substantially involved in running the finances of his mother-in-law, Isabella Dight after she was widowed. He also seemed to be the executor of the wills of John Dight and Hamilton H. Dight from 26.9.1872.
Edward Harrison’s ledger also details funds periodically sent to London for his mother Mrs Eliza Harrison of Jamaica from before 1872 (knowing his father John has passed away prior to his marriage to Mary in 1858.) Mention is made of profit and loss on land certificates, shares, bills, wine to the late Mrs E Harrison in folio 85 and 86 of the ledger.
Edward’s continued links with Jamaica are evident with imports of rum, port and wine through Hammock’s of London.
He purchased shares in:
Pioneer Gold Mining Company of Crooked River
Victoria Ladies Sericultural Society (possibly a community organisation)
Long Tunnel Company of Walhalla
Climes Consols Gold Mining Company
Albion Consol Company Ballarat
Kohinoir G.M. Company Sandhurst
Victoria G.M. Company Walhalla
Sandhurst Stocks (sharebroker?)
North Old Chum (?)
Huslers Reserve
Golden Fleece No. 3
Golden Gates
Royal Hirstlips (?)
Gippsland Steam Navigation Company
Deniliquin & Moama Railway Company
Bank of Victoria
Winters Freehold G.M. Company
Schaeffer G.M. Company
East Golden Reef Company
Second South Melbourne Building Society
Commercial Bank of Australia
National Bank
Foster Coal Company
Mutual Store
F.C. Klemis Mining
Werrington & Pleasant Creek Company
Magdala G.M. Company of Pleasant Creek
Great Extended Hustlers Company Tribute Sandhurst
Melbourne Meat Preserving Company
Shamrock Company
Victoria Fire and Marine Insurance Company
Victoria Life and General Insurance Company
Victoria Insurance Company
Melbourne Bread and Flour Company
Land sales:
Hawthorn land purchased from MacIntyre 15.3.1873 and sold 29.9.1880.
Echuca
Kerang
Dight’s Flinders Lane
Barkers Road (with Nation James)
Properties:
Lennox St property
Mason St
Dight Falls (the suburb of collingwood)
Edward took out several insurance policies for both himself and Mary. He also set up a trust account on 3.10.1879 in which funds left to Mary by her Dight relatives were held.
Edward Harrison died on the 29.8.1881 in Hawthorn, Victoria aged 54 and is buried with his chilren Nellie Constance and May in the Boroondara General Cemetery in Kew, Victoria
Mary Frances Harrison died on 28.5.1927 aged 89.
Mary Harrison had seven living children at the time of her death, including Arthur Dight.
She died in her home at “Hilton” 8 Brooke Street Lower Hawthorn where she lived with her widowed son Charles Dight Harrison (and probably his daughter Nancy) and unmarried daughters Frances Alice Edith and Minnie May Mitchell. Executors of her will were her daughter Isobel Sophie and Charles Dight and her estate was bequeathed to Frances and Minnie with the direction for them to “give to each of the other members of my family something of mine as a memento or keepsake”.
The Harrison Hawthorn house was valued as being worth less that 500 pounds and Mary’s personal estate “within the jurisdiction” being less that 55 pounds – broken down to household furniture and affects 50 pounds and bank savings of 5 pounds. Probate was granted 22nd December 1930 – 3 years after her death. Isobel was Matron at Colac Hospital at the time of probate and her brother Charles signed the legalities over to her.
When Isobel retired, she came back to live with her sisters at 8 Brooke Street. Minnie May Mitchell Harrison was the last of Edward and Mary Harrison’s children to die. She outlived her brother Arthur, remained at Brook Street until at least until 1954 (last census available) and died 8th June 1960 aged 82.
None of Edward Harrison’s sons had sons that procreated except Arthur Dight Harrison. Of Arthur’s 3 sons, only one has a descendant capable of keeping this branch of the Harrison name alive and that is through William Edward: son Jack Harrison; son Kimberley Scott Harrison; son Mitchell Dean Harrison (born 1997).
RELATIVES OF EDWARD AND MARY DETAILED IN THE LEDGERS
The thirteen children of John Dight II and Hannah:
- Sarah (5.3.1800 – 17.2.1832)
- Elizabeth (22.9.1802-19.3.1886), who married 8.11.1825 Hamilton Andrew Hume the explorer) (in EGH Ledger)
- Mary (21.9.1804 – 26.12.1819)
- Ann (21.8.1806 – 3.8.1889 who in 1847 married James Howe)
- JOHN DIGHT (in EGH Ledger) (2.9.1808 – 23.4.1867 who in 27.8.1832 married ISABELLA MITCHELL) (in EGH Ledger)
- George (20.10.1810 – 25.2.1841 who in 1841 married Elizabeth Ann Moore Howe) (in EGH Ledger)
- Charles Hilton (13.1.1813 – 9.10.1852 who in 1845 married Emma Marie Smith) (in EGH Ledger)
- Samuel Billingsley (12.3.1815 – 7.8.1888 married Sophia Howe, then Emma Howe)
- Jane (15.2.1817 – 13.4.1899 who in 1842 married James Burleigh Sharp)
- Susannah (15.2.1817 – 1896 who in 1844 married John Watson)
- Arthur (6.6.1819 – 31.7.1895 who in 1861 married Janet McCracken)
- Frances (10.9.1821 – 22.5.1893 who in 1842 married George Edward Mackay)
- Sophia (25.11.1823 – 2.10.1899)
The children of John Dight III and Isabella:
- Jane Elizabeth (1833 – 27.11.1926 who in 1859 married Henry Scott) (in EGH Ledger)
- Emma Ann (23.8.1835 – ? who in 1851 married Peter Stuckey)
- Mary Frances (in EGH Ledger) (23.8.1837 – 28.5.1927 who in 1858 married EDWARD HARRISON)
- John Thomas (born 1839 – died 3.9.1878) (in EGH Ledger)
- Charles Hilton (in EGH Ledger) (31.1.1841 – 17.12.1913 who in 1869 married Emma Dight)
- Sophia Louise (3.10.1843 – 28.12.1923 who in 1862 married Curtis Reid) (in EGH Ledger)
- William George (12.9.1845 – 9.6.1890) (in EGH Ledger)
- Isabella Dight (1848 – 7.10.1896 who in 1869 married John Dight Mackay)
- Frederick Edward (1850 – 28.3.1882) (in EGH Ledger)
- Alice (1851 – 9.7.1928)
- Eva Susan (died 19.6.1928)
- Amy Huon (3.5.1855 – 12.1.1924 who in 1880 married John Watson)
- Arthur Mitchell (1858 – 17.12.1868)
- Florence Sophie (1861 – 1.2.1865)
The eleven children of William Mitchell and Elizabeth:
- Emma (born 8.9.1814, married Francis Rawdon Hume, brother of explorer Hamilton Hume)
- Isabella (born 16.5.1816) married John Dight (in EGH Ledger)
- Thomas (25.6.1818 – 18.1.1879 married in 1850 to Charlotte Stuckey)
- Mary Ursula (born 21.10.1820, married William Steele)
- Edward (10.10.1822 – 22.4.1909, married Jessie Furlong)
- Louisa (born 1.11.1824, who on 16.4.1846 married Elliot Heriot)
- Eliza (born 22.7.1827, married David Bowen Jones) (in EGH Ledger)
- Agnes (born 13.10.1829, married Ancrum Heriot)
- Jean François Huon (born 16.10.1831 who in 1863 married Louisa Fenner, then Louisa Drury Evans)
- James F. H. (29.5.1835 – 3.4.1914 who married his cousin Sarah Huon) (in EGH Ledger)
- There was a fifth son, Frederick, who died young