Editing Benjamin Harrison V (section)

==Virginia legislator==

According to one researcher, in 1749, Harrison first took his father's path in being elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, initially for Surry County, and notes that Harrison was not of legal age to assume his burgesses seat until 1752. Either he or a relative succeeded the deceased Edward Broadnax as Charles City County's representative in the House of Burgesses in 1748 and won each election at least until 1769.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond, Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 81, 83, 86, 88. 91, 94</ref><ref>Although the prior version of this article cites Smith p. 10 for stating this man was elected from Surry County from 1752 until 1761, the Virginia General Assembly's official researchers led by Ms. Leonard name other men as representing Surry County in those years, and the actual unfootnoted sentence says Lucille Griffith found this man and Richard Bland, Dudley Digges, William Harwood, Edmund Pendleton and Lemuel Riddick each continually represented their respective counties from 1752 until the end of the house of Burgesses.</ref><ref>Leonard's non-linkage of the Signer Benjamin Harrison with the pre-1768 burgess may be conservative, but he did have a cousin of the same name who would have qualified by reason of age, since born in 1719, although that Benjamin Harrison (son of Nathaniel) was associated with Wakefield plantation in Surry County. see https://colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I27026&tree=Tree1</ref> Researchers agree that this man and William Acrill continually won re-election and represented Charles City County in the House of Burgesses from 1769 until Virginia's last colonial governor ended that assembly in 1776. <ref>Leonard pp. 97, 99, 102, 105</ref> Then Charles City County voters elected Harrison and Acrill to the first two Revolutionary Conventions, and Acrill with this man and his son Benjamin Harrison VI as alternates to the third and fourth convention, and Acrill with Samuel Harwood and this man as alternates to the fifth convention.<ref>Leonard pp. 109, 112, 114, 117, 119</ref> Harrison, Acrill and Samuel Harwood then jointly represented Charles City County in the new Virginia House of Delegates at its inaugural session, then Acrill and Harrison, then John Tyler joined Harrison as Charles City County's other legislator beginning in 1778 until 1781. When fellow legislators elected Harrison Virginia's governor, he was replaced as delegate by William Green Munford.<ref>Leonard pp. 122, 125, 129, 133, 137, 141</ref> At the end of his gubernatorial term (he was ineligible for re-election), Harrison was briefly elected from Surry County across the James River, where he moved and which he represented for a term alongside his son [[Carter Bassett Harrison]], and fellow delegates also elected him as their Speaker.<ref>Leonard pp. 156, 158</ref> Harrison then returned to Charles City County, and voters elected him as one of their representatives until his death (he died before taking his seat in the fall 1791 session).<ref>Leonard pp. 164, 168, 172, 175, 179, 183 note2</ref> :{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=10}}

In his first year in the House of Burgesses in 1752, Harrison was appointed to the Committee of Propositions and Grievances and thereby participated in a confrontation with King George and his [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] and their appointed Governor of Virginia, [[Robert Dinwiddie]]. There developed a dispute with the governor over his levy of a [[pistole]] (a Spanish gold coin) upon all land patents, which presaged the core issue of the American Revolution two decades later—[[No taxation without representation|taxation without representation]].{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=12}} Harrison assisted in drafting a complaint to the governor and the Crown, which read that the payment of any such levy would be "deemed a betrayal of the rights and privileges of the people."{{sfn|Smith|1978|pp=11–12}} When the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|British Privy Council]] received the complaint, it replied: "that the lower house is a subordinate lawmaking body, and where the King's decisions are concerned, it counts for nothing."{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=12}} On this occasion, a compromise was reached, allowing the governor's levy on parcels of less than 100 acres lying east of the mountains.{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=12}}
[[File:Williamsburg Virginia Court House.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Courthouse (Colonial Williamsburg)|Williamsburg Courthouse]]. Harrison helped raise the funds to purchase the courthouse for the city.]]
Harrison again joined the fray with Britain after it adopted the [[Townshend Acts]], formally asserting the Parliament's right to tax the colonies. He was appointed in 1768 to a special committee to draft a response for the colony. A resolution asserted the right of British subjects to be taxed only by their elected representatives.{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=19}} The American colonies achieved their objective with a repeal of the Townshend Acts through the action of [[Frederick North, Lord North|Lord North]], who nevertheless continued the tax on tea.{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=21}}

Clearly this man in 1770 was a signer of the [[Virginia Association]], an association of Virginia lawmakers and merchants boycotting British imports until the British Parliament repealed its tea tax.{{sfn|Dowdey|1957|p=172}} He also sponsored a bill declaring that Parliament's laws were illegal without the colonists' consent.{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=21}} Harrison, at this time, also served as a justice in Charles City County. When the city of [[Williamsburg, Virginia|Williamsburg]] lacked the funds for the construction of a courthouse, he and fellow delegate James Littlepage organized a group of "Gentlemen Subscribers" who purchased an unused building and presented it to the city in 1771.{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=9}} Early in 1772, Harrison and Thomas Jefferson were among a group of six Virginia house delegates assigned to prepare and deliver an address to the king which called for an end to the importation of enslaved people from Africa. Reportedly that the request was delivered and was unambiguous in its object to close the slave trade; the king rejected it.{{sfn|Smith|1978|p=22}}