Introduction

Biography

Ralph was the son of Will­iam Har­ris­on, min­is­ter at a rur­al cha­pel for ov­er 27 years.

In 1763, he en­tered the War­ring­ton Aca­de­my. Af­ter or­di­na­tion as a Pres­by­ter­ian min­is­ter, he be­gan serv­ing at the Pres­by­ter­ian Cha­pel, High Street, Shrews­bu­ry, in 1769. He moved to Cross Street Cha­pel, Man­ches­ter, in 1771.

In 1774, he be­gan a school, and gained such re­pute as a mas­ter that when the Man­ches­ter Aca­de­my was es­tab­lished in 1798, Har­ris­on was ap­point­ed a pro­fess­or there.

He was al­so a class­ic­al tu­tor at the aca­de­my, a dis­ting­uished teach­er of an­cient lang­uag­es, and an ama­teur mu­si­cian and com­pos­er.

Works

About 1780, he planned to bring to­ge­ther a col­lecti­on of tunes for use in the Man­ches­ter dis­trict, es­pec­ial­ly in his own cha­pel.

No lo­cal col­lect­ion had been is­sued for a long time, and aft­er he had, as he said in the pre­face, been try­ing in vain to in­duce oth­ers to un­der­take the work, he be­gan it him­self, though he said he boasts no ex­tra­or­di­na­ry tal­ent in mu­sic.

Harrison al­so pro­duced an Eng­lish Gram­mar and oth­er works.