Quarles Harris

The Harris family was one of the oldest established of the English community in Porto and the company that bears their name was founded in 1680, making it one of the first to start shipping Port. The company enjoyed great success and a century after its foundation, when it was known as Harris, Stafford & Co., it had become the second largest exporter of Port. Into the 19th century, through family relationship with other well-known Port families, the Murats and the Nobles, the firm became connected with, and was eventually absorbed by the firm of Warre & Co. In the early 1920s, Quarles Harris was given a new lease of life when Andrew James Symington, then Warre’s principal shareholder, reconstituted Quarles Harris in partnership with Reginald Quarles Harris, his wife’s cousin. To this day, Quarles Harris is owned by the Symington family.