Harding, Harris

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. M. Bumsted, “HARDING, HARRIS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/harding_harris_8E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Educator and Baptist minister; b. 10 Oct. 1761 in Horton, N. S., son of Israel Harding and Sarah Harris; d. 7 March 1854 in Yarmouth, N.S
    • Although born in Nova Scotia in the early years of New England planter settlement of the province, young Harris Harding returned to Connecticut in the 1770s with his parents, among the many who decided that “Nova Scarcity” was not as attractive as they had been led to believe. According to John Davis, his later associate and biographer, Harding served during the American revolution on a rebel boat conveying goods from New York to Boston, and on one occasion was held briefly by the British as a suspected spy. Whatever the truth of such stories, Harding returned to Horton in 1783 with his father, who received a land grant from the British government.
    • At the first general meeting of New Lights and Baptists in Cornwallis in June 1798, Harding was charged with “new dispensationism,” which denied the necessity of structured churches with formal rules and stressed the direct relationship between God and mankind. At this time he acknowledged his faults and confessed his errors and was admitted to the association. Baptized himself by James Manning on 28 Aug. 1799, Harding, like most of his fellow evangelical ministers in the Maritimes, had been brought to believer’s baptism by immersion by the end of the 18th century.
    • Although not a great pulpit preacher, Harding was an effective one, offering extemporaneous sermons richly studded with biblical citations. As Davis observed: “Mr Harding kept no journal. He wrote few letters. His labours from year to year and from one season of revival to another, were marked by but few varieties. The recollections of survivors are but vague and indistinct.” Unlike many of his colleagues, however, Harding was good at pastoral work and visitation. Much of his most effective work was done on such occasions. As Harding grew older he became extremely portly, so that “his length and breadth seemed to be so nearly equal as to suggest ideas of the square and cubical.” Instead of turning him into a comical figure, however, his size and gravity made him extremely impressive and he was one of the beloved figures of his denomination.
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3553
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183926725/harris-harding