He learned under private tutors at Berkeley Plantation and then at Richmond, Virginia, after his father became governor. He then attended Hampden-Sydney College, focusing his studies on history and literature. However, since a young age he had aspired to a career in medicine. With his father’s blessing, he went to Richmond to study medicine and then moved to Pennsylvania to study under Dr. Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician and, like Harrison’s father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.