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Otis, Harrison Gray

American, 1856 - 1915

Biography

Harrison was the son of William Church Otis [1831-1889], and the grandson of James William Otis [1800-1869]. He was born in Nahant, Massachusetts, lived for a time in Needham, Massachusetts, and died in Dublin, Ireland, where he lived for several years with his family. Harrison's namesake was Harrison Gray [1711-1794], receiver-general for the Province of Massachusetts from 1753 until the Revolution, and a sitter for a portrait by John Singleton Copley now in the NGA (1976.25.1). Harrison Gray published his loyalist views in 1775 in a pamphlet titled The Two Congresses Cut Up. He fled Boston in 1776 and spent the rest of his life in England. Harrison's Gray's daughter, Elizabeth Gray Otis, married Samuel Alleyne Otis [1740-1814], brother of pamphleteer James Otis and author Mercy Otis Warren. Both Samuel Alleyne Otis and Elizabeth Gray Otis, great-great-grandparents of Harrison Gray Otis, are subjects of portraits now in the NGA (1980.11.1, 1980.11.2). [Compiled from sources and references recorded on CMS]

Bibliography

1924
Otis, William A. A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America. Chicago, 1924: 495.

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