Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1901 — ANCESTOR CROMWELL’S FRIEND. [ARTICLE]

ANCESTOR CROMWELL’S FRIEND.

Harr 1 non Descended Frtm Man Wh» Signed King’s Death Warrant. One of the powerful characters portrayed in the elder Dumas “Twenty Years After” was Colonel Harrison, a Puritan colonel whom Cromwell loved and trusted, and who had charge of the execution of King Charles L About the time that the great historical romancer was preparing the material for the “Three" Muskateers” series a lineal descendant of that stern old Roundhead was elected President of the United States. He was William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States. This Puritan colonel had three great descendants— Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; General William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States, and General Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President of the United States. To Dumas’s vivid fancy, the story of this Puritan officer suggested the elements essential for the creation of a great hero of romance. It was a story of bravery, firmness and moral integrity and purity; a story that contained as thrilling a narration of bravery upon the field of battle as ever has been told by any soldier; a story that spoke of an absolute incorruptibility and devotion to conviction, and a firmness of the same fibre that showed in Cromwell himself. Added to this there was the tragic experience that fell to Colonel Harrison, who was in command of the troops upon the day when King Charles knelt to the block, and who himself went unflinchingly to death upon the gibbet. Before the Restoration Harrison became a major-general. His death is told of in the following entry made by Samuel Pepys in his diary under date of October 13, 1660: “I went out to Charing Cross to see Major-General Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered, which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition. He was presently cut down and his head and heart shown to the people, at which there was great shouts of joy. It is said that he was sure to come shortly at the right hand of Christ to judge them that now had judged him; and that his wife do expect his coming again. Thus it was my chance to see the King beheaded at Whitehall, and to see the first blood shed in revenge for the King at Charing Cross.” General Harrison had been appointed by Cromwell to convey Charles I. from Windsor to Whitehall for his trial, and he signed the warrant for the beheading of the King. When the King was In General Harrison’s custody he was struck with his soldierly appearance, and he told him that he had been informed that he (Harrison) would assassinate him. Harrison answered that Parliament would not strike the King secretly. The descendants of the patriot came to America soon after the hanging at Charing Cross, but the family did not come prominently into view until just before the Revolutionary War.