HARWOOD, John Edmund, actor, born in England in 1771; died in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 21 September, 1809. He received a liberaleducation, and studied law in England. In 1793 he came to this country, having joined a company of comedians that had been engaged for the theatre in Philadelphia. Later, Harwood married Miss Bathe, a granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. He then retired from the stage, to begin business as bookseller and conductor of a circulating library, but after several years he was unsuccessful, and lost his capital. In 1803 he went to New York city, under an engagement with the manager of the Park theatre. Dunlap says he was a man of wit and refinement, and highly endowed as an actor, but indolent and careless of study. At the close of his career he became too corpulent to continue some of his best early representations, Harwood published a volume of "Poems" (New York, 1809). They display taste and scholarship, but have no especial merit. --His son, Andrew Allen, naval officer, born in Settle, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1802; died in Marion, Massachusetts, 28 August, 1884, was appointed midshipman, 1 January, 1818, and from 1819 till 1821 served in the sloop-of-war "Hornet " in the suppression of the African slave-trade. He was commissioned lieutenant in 1827, and in the following year was appointed to the receiving ship "Philadelphia." He was detached as special messenger to bring home the ratified treaty with Naples, and from 1835 till 1837 served in the Mediterranean squadron. He was assistant inspector of ordnance in 1843-'52, member of a commission to visit dock-yards and foundries in England and France in 1844, and in 1848 was promoted to commander. In 1851 he became member of a board appointed to prepare ordnance instructions for the navy, and to make investigations and experiments. He commanded the frigate "Cumberland," of the Mediterranean squadron, from 1853 till 1855, when he was appointed captain. He was inspector of ordnance from 1858 till 1861, and in the latter year was commissioned chief of the bureau of ordnance and hydrography. In the following year he became commodore, and was appointed commandant of the navy yard at Washington, and of the Potomac flotilla. He was retired in 1864, but served as secretary of the light house board, and a member of the examining board from 1864 till 1869, when he was made rear-admiral on the retired list. During the civil war he prepared a work on "Summary Courts-Martial," and published the "Law and Practice of United States Navy Courts-Martial" (1867).