Edward Harington, MP

Family and Education b. c.1526, 2nd s. of (Sir) John Harington† of Exton by Elizabeth, da. and h. of Robert Moton of Peckleton, Leics.; bro. of James Harington I. educ. L. Inn 1544, called 1555.

Offices Held

Biography Most of what has been discovered about Harington comes from the records of Lincoln’s Inn, from which society, in 1546, he was expelled and committed to the Fleet prison for removing the light of St. John in the hall and hanging a horse’s head in its place. He and his comrades were re-admitted ‘being very sorry and penitent for their said lewd and naughty misdemeanours’, but in the same year were put out of commons ‘for making affray upon Ranwyk at the gate, and hurling butter about the house and at the said Ranwyk’s head’. He filled various minor offices at Lincoln’s Inn until at least February 1566, when he was invited to become a bencher: presumably he refused, for there is no further reference to him in the Lincoln’s Inn records.

Through his brother’s marriage Harington was allied to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, but his seat at Fowey was presumably secured through the patronage of the 2nd Earl of Bedford. He is not known to have married, and he had no surviving children when he made his will on 13 June 1599. He left numerous bequests to relatives, appointed his nephew James executor and residuary legatee, and made his brother Robert Harington, rector of Hornsey, an overseer. The will was proved 13 Mar. 1602.

Vis. Rutland (Harl. Soc. iii), 38; L. Inn Black Bk. i. 273-5, 314, 327, 342, 350; HMC Rutland, iv. 379; PCC 7 Montague.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603 Author: Roger Virgoe