Sir_James_Harrington,_3rd_Baronet_of_Ridlington

Sir James Harington, 3rd Baronet

Sir James Harington, 3rd Baronet

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Colonel Sir James Harington, 3rd Baronet (30 December 1607 – c. 1680) was an English politician and military officer who fought on the Parliamentarian side during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.[1][2]

An engraving of Harington

Early life

James Harington was the eldest son of Edward Harington of Ridlington and Margaret Doyley. He married Katherine Wright (1617-1675), a daughter of Sir Edmund Wright, Lord Mayor of London, and inherited Swakeleys House from Wright.

Military career

Harrington was Colonel of the Westminster Trained Bands (the Red Regiment) in 1642, and he commanded a London brigade (his own regiment, together with the Green Auxiliary Trained Bands of London and the Tower Hamlets Auxiliaries (the Yellow Regiment)) in Sir William Waller's Parliamentarian army at the Siege of Basing House and Battle of Alton in late 1643.[3][4][5] As a Major-General, Harrington led out another brigade of suburban Trained Bands (the Tower Hamlets Regiment, the Southwark White Auxiliaries and the Westminster Yellow Auxiliaries) to join Waller in the campaign that culminated at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge on 29 June 1644.[6][7][8][9][10] For the great combination of Parliamentary armies in the autumn of 1644, London provided a fresh brigade of five regiments under Harrington. It fought at the Second Battle of Newbury, where Harrington had his horse shot under him.[11][12][13][14]

Political career

He was elected MP for Rutland (1646–1653) and Middlesex (1654–55). Although he did not sign the death warrant, Harrington was one of the Commissioners (Judges) at the trial of Charles I. During the Interregnum, he continued to serve the Parliamentary cause, He served on the first Council of State and later was for a time president of the council. After the Restoration he was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act which pardoned most for taking up arms against the King in the Civil War, and died in exile on the European mainland.[2][15] His baronetcy, which he had inherited on his father's death in 1653, was declared forfeited for life in 1661.[16]

See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Families covered: Harington of Exton, Harington of Ridlington
  2. [2]
    John Tapin References writes that in most existing contemporary records the spelling of the name was with a double 'r', and that the single 'r' is used in some instances, and that this is the way the family spells their name today.
  3. [3]
    Adair, pp. 26–8, 32–73.
  4. [4]
    Nagel, pp. 136–44.
  5. [5]
    Roberts, pp. 49–52.
  6. [6]
    Reid, pp. 169–74.
  7. [7]
    Nagel, pp. 183, 192–202.
  8. [8]
    Toynbee & Young, pp. 25–8, 83.
  9. [9]
    Cropredy at UK battlefields.
  10. [10]
    Battle of Cropredy Bridge
  11. [11]
    Burne & Young, pp. 181–9.
  12. [12]
    Nagel, pp. 208–21.
  13. [13]
    Reid, pp. 184–91.
  14. [14]
    Newbury II at UK Battlefields.
  15. [15]
    David Hume The history of England From the invasion of Julius Caesar to the revolution in 1688:Volume VI: The Commonwealth (1778): Endnote [a]
  16. [16]
    Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page: Baronetage, Harnage to Hermon-Hodge[usurped]

References

Further reading

  • Ian Grimble's The Harington Family published by Jonathan Cape, London 1957
More information Baronetage of England ...
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