After a quarrel with Berkeley he left Jamestown and took charge of the churches on the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers with their Puritan congregations.

Berkeley would probably have set the law-officers upon him at once, but among his councillors was Richard Bennett, himself of Harrison's congregation, and his influence held the governor back for a time.
Three years passed, and at length Harrison and his elder, William Durand, were peremptorily directed to leave the colony.

Harrison went first to New England and then to old England, while William Durand emigrated to Maryland, where, aided by Bennett, he made terms with Governor William Stone for the emigration of his flock; and in the year 1649 more than one thousand persons left Virginia and settled on the Severn and Patuxent rivers.

The settlement was called Providence, and was destined to play a remarkable part in the history of Maryland.[28] When the civil war in England was fairly on, emigration to Virginia was much improved in material, and for many years was very large.

The new-comers came to make homes, not merely to make tobacco, and they no longer consisted of servants, but of the merchants and yeomanry of England.