John Harris

HARRIS, John. b. Ugborough, South Devon, 8 March 1802; d. London, 21 December 1856. Harris was the son of a tailor and outfitter, who moved his family to Bristol, ca. 1815, when John would have been 13. Originally they attended the Cathedral, but on a rainy day they turned into the Tabernacle Church, where they remained as members: the young man became a Sunday-school teacher and then a preacher. He trained for the Congregational ministry at Hoxton Academy, London (1823-25) before becoming ordained to Epsom Congregational Church, where he remained from 1825 to 1838. During those years he wrote The Great Teacher (1835), and some remarkably successful prize essays. In 1835 he won two hundred...