During the English Civil War he supported the royalist side, and at the Restoration in July 1660 was made serjeant-at-law, third baron of the exchequer, and knighted.
The grand jury found a true bill, but Turnor refused to try the case until Harrison's body should be produced.
He allowed the case to proceed, the jury convicted the prisoners, and they were executed; but some years afterwards their innocence was established by Harrison's reappearance.
In the administration of the Conventicle and Five Mile acts he appears to have shown as much leniency towards the accused as the rigour of these statutes permitted.
He was a member of the special court of summary jurisdiction created to adjudicate on disputes between owners and occupiers of property in the districts ravaged by the Great Fire of London.
In recognition of the services which in this capacity he rendered to the public, his portrait, painted for the corporation of London by Michael Wright in 1671, was placed in Guildhall.