CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

John Harris (died 1677)

English politician who died in 1677

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ6237960 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Harris (1631 - August 1677) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1677.

Harris was the son of John Harris of Lanrest, Liskeard in Cornwall, and of Radford by Plymstock in Devon, and his wife Elizabeth Johnson of Bonham in Wiltshire who died giving birth to him. His father was MP for Liskeard and supported the King during the Civil War.

Harris's father died in 1649 but in 1653 Harris was required to pay a permanent ten per cent fine, which was levied on the property holdings of all royalist and political opponents. He was imprisoned in Plymouth Castle when a planned uprising was discovered.

Following the Restoration, Harris was elected Member of Parliament for Liskeard in the Cavalier Parliament of 1661, a seat he held until his death in 1677.

He died in 1677. He had married in 1666, Mary, the daughter of John Rashleigh of Menabilly, Cornwall.

Editorial summary

“John Harris (died 1677)” enters the record as english politician who died in 1677. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Harris and died can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1631, 1677, 1661, 1649—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1631-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around John, Harris and died.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“John Harris (died 1677)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, John, Harris and died provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6237960. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1631, 1677, 1661 and 1649.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Harris (died 1677)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Harris (died 1677) primary sources, John Harris (died 1677) archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Harris (died 1677)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Harris (died 1677)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.