John Harrison was the son of Cuthbert Harrison and Frances Barnes. He was born in Dettingen Parish, colonial Prince William, Virginia. He was married first to Nancy Miller and second to Elizabeth "Betsey" Headley and had issue with both.

John Harrison served in the Revolutionary War as a Private in Captain Gabriel Long's detached riflemen commanded by Col. Daniel Morgan of the Continental Army from 1777 to 1778. It is unclear if Pvt. John Harrison has any family relations with Capt. Gabriel Long, who married Margaret Harrison. Capt. Long's mother is also believed to have been Elizabeth Harrison.

Known children of John Harrison and Nancy Miller (there possibly others):

1. Nancy (Harrison)Pell m. John Pell (DNA)
2. John Harrison (Jr.) m. Alice Seybold (DNA)
3. William Harrison m. Margaret Dawson (DNA)

Known children of John Harrison and Elizabeth Betsey Headly:

1. Thomas Harrison, Rev. m. Margaret Furr (DNA)

Additional research is needed to identify precisely where John Harrison is buried in the area. I have identified a John Harrison, who lived near West End Fairfax, near Alexandria. This also matches a past Pell research that pinpointed this location. Sure enough, newspapers from the period show John D. Harrison, followed by a John Harrison. We recognize John D. Harrison as the son of William Harrison and Margaret Dawson. It is possible the John Harrison noted is this John Harrison or his son John Harrison (jr), the cousin of John D. Harrison. From my local knowledge and history, West End Alexandria was formerly part of Fairfax County, Virginia. As I am local to this area, I will conduct further research for a final disposition.

John Harrison's son, John Harrison, is said to have had a stable of thoroughbred horses. This matches one story I found from 1786: John Harrison "brought from Virginia a race-horse that ran over this course (a Louisville race track) until he beat all the scrubs matched against him and won all the money." This is likely our John Harrison of Virginia and Kentucky. His descendants migrated to and settled mainly in Cabin Creek, Lewis County, Kentucky.

Discrepancies:

William Harrison is noted as John Harrison's child in DAR submissions. However, DAR submissions backdate the birth year of John Harrison from 1744 to 1730 to accommodate William's estimated DOB of 1753. These dates do not match the accepted DOB of John Harrison (18 Aug 1744). Strong autosomal DNA matches affirm William Harrison is highly likely a part of this family group. Key DNA evidence came from multiple descendants of William, through his son John Dawson Harrison, and the DNA of older family members and shared DNA with descendants of John Harrison (Jr.) and Nancy Pell. William's DOB (1753) is likely incorrect, as John Harrison could not have a child at nine. William may be John's brother.

Errors: Pvt. John Harrison is NOT Capt. John Peyton Harrison or ever will be.

Administrative action has occurred to correct the genealogical record of our ancestor, John Harrison, who is not Captain John Peyton Harrison, as this error is not supported by genealogical proof standards or site policies to steal the service record and namesake of another individual. The root cause identified of past error was from a 2012 profile on a popular genealogy platform (familysearch) for the actual Capt. John Peyton Harrison (son of Thomas Harrison and Anne Waye Peyton, who married both Frances Peyton and Elizabeth Peyton), whose profile was stripped of his demographics and family in favor of our ancestor Private John Harrison, adding his wives and parents but retaining the former middle name and service rank as a result.

Site policies do not support false information, which creates a false genealogy of our ancestors. Extensive Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) work confirmed Captain John Peyton Harrison, which, in turn, confirmed he was not Private John Harrison. The continued perpetuation robs descendants of both men of their heritage and their earned service record "stolen valor."

This singular intentional or unintentional merge error or false narrative in 2012 was replicated across multiple platforms due to site-to-site integrations or manually into thousands of trees, formerly Find a Grave, which has since been corrected.

GPS research has separated this Private John Harrison from Captain John Peyton Harrison, who has been proven not to be John Peyton Harrison. This has been corrected based on an extensive review of Genealogical Standard evidence, site logs, working with the profile owners of where they formerly sourced their information, site administrators and curators, and input from this genealogist who did research versus copy/paste.

Taking another individual's identity, name, and service rank was inappropriate and violated multiple sites' content policies. No one wins; the descendants of Private John Harrison were left with a false identity of their ancestor, and the actual descendants of Captain John Peyton Harrison were hijacked of their ancestor's name, service record, and history. Administrative action was taken in 2022 across multiple platforms after a relatively exhaustive search and review of evidence.

John Harrison b. 1744 d. 1827, married Nancy Miller and Betsey Headley. John Harrison is NOT Captain John Peyton Harrison, who married Frances Peyton and Elizabeth Peyton. John Harrison does NOT have a middle name and holds the rank of Private, which we can be proud of. It is not appropriate to blatantly take the identity, rank, and records of Captain John Peyton Harrison.

The effort to clean up the mess caused valuable research time to be spent on an individual (Capt. John Peyton Harrison) who is NOT our ancestor versus spending time on Private John Harrison, who is our ancestor. While Pvt. John Harrison's rank, service records, and relations are less prestigious; we should all be proud that Pvt. John Harrison served in one of the most critical wars that further defined our nation.

The GPS work for Captain John Peyton Harrison proved his identity separate and apart from our Private John Harrison. New sources and references were identified to include recent scholarly research, specifically on Capt. John Peyton Harrison confirmed he died in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1821 and solidified his mark on Loudon County history and his service record during the Revolutionary War.