HARRISON, WILLIAM, a writer much esteemed and patronised by the literati of his time, was fellow of New College, Oxford. Whilst employed as tutor to the Duke of Queensberry's son, he fortunately attracted the favour of Dr Swift, at whose solicitation Mr St John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, obtained for him the employment of secretary to Lord Raby, ambassador at the Hague, and afterwards Earl of Strafford. A letter written by him whilst at Utrecht, dated 16th December 1712, is printed in the dean's works. Mr Harrison, who did not long enjoy his rising fortune, was dispatched to London with the Barrier Treaty, and died on the 14th of February 1718. Mr Tickel has mentioned him with respect in his Prospect of Peace; and Dr Young, in the close of an epistle to Lord Lansdowne, pathetically bewails his death. Dr Birch, who has given a curious note on Harrison's letter to Swift, has confounded him with Thomas Harrison of Queen's College. In Nichols' Select Collection are some pleasing specimens of his poetry, which, with Woodstock-Park, in Dodley's Collection, and an Ode to the Duke of Marlborough, in Duncombe's Horace, form all of his poetical writings that are known. Harrison figured both as an humorist and a politician in the fifth volume of the Tatler, of which, under the patronage of Bolingbroke, Henley, and Swift, he was professedly the editor.