John Harington

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Image:Sir John Harington (1561-1612) - Project Gutenberg eText 13403.png

Sir John Harington (1561 – November 20, 1612) was known as Queen Elizabeth I's 'saucy Godson'. He was born in Kelston, Somerset, England.

He was the son of John Harington of Kelston (d. 1582), the poet, and his second wife Isabella Markham (d. 1579), a gentlewoman of Queen Elizabeth's privy chamber, and became one of the Queen's 102 god-children.

Although he had intended to study law, Harington was attracted early in life to the royal court, where his freespoken attitude and poetry gained the queen's attention. She encouraged his writing, but Harington was inclined to overstep the mark in his somewhat Rabelaisian and occasionally risqué pieces. His attempt at a translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso caused his banishment from court for some years, but was completed in 1591 and received great praise.

Around this time, Harington also devised Britain's first flushing toilet — called the Ajax (i.e. "a jakes"; jakes being an old slang word for toilet) — installed at his manor in Kelston, and which was reputed to have been current with the queen herself. In 1596, Harington published a book on his device, entitled The Metamorphosis of Ajax, but his use of certain political allusions led to a further banishment from court, and he was threatened with proceedings in the Star Chamber. He chose to return to his manor house in Kelston and spend more time with his wife Mary, whom he had married around 1586, and their seven surviving children. In time, he was forgiven by the queen.

In 1599 the queen sent an army led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex to Ireland put down a rebellion led by Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone. She strongly recommended that Essex include Harington in his army, and he was asked to command horseman under Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Harington's legacy from this campaign were his letters and journal, which served to give the queen good intelligence about the progress of the campaign and its politics. Indeed, Harington wrote, "I have informed myself reasonably well of the whole state of the country, by observation and conference: so I count the knowledge I have gotten here worth more than half the three hundred pounds this journey hath cost me." During the campaign Essex confered a knighthood on Harington for his services. Essex fell into disfavour with the queen for concluding a humiliating truce which ended the campaign, and also caused her fury over the large number of knighthoods he awarded. So it was that Harington, who had been present at the truce negotiations and had to accompany Essex, when he was recalled to account to the queen, experienced her wrath. However, with his wit and charm he soon secured the queen's forgiveness for himself.

After the queen's death, Harington's fortunes faltered at the court of the new King, James I. He spent some time at his manor at Kelston, but then found himself serving time in prison. He had stood surety for the debts of his cousin, Sir Griffin Markham, in the sum of £4000, when the latter had become involved in the Bye and Main Plots. Not able to meet his cousin's debts without selling his own lands, and unwilling to languish in gaol, he escaped custody in October 1603. However, James I had already recognised his loyalty and created him a Knight of the Bath and also granted him the properties forfeited upon Markham's exile.

Harington continued to write, even though he had vowed to give up poetry upon the death of Queen Elizabeth. He published just one more slim volume of verse in 1607, but continued to send letters both to friends and to the king's eldest son, Prince Henry, until 1609. Some of these letters were later collected by Harington's descendant, Henry Harington, and published under the title of Nugae Antiquae in 1769. The volume is a significant source for the history of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland.

Harington fell ill in May 1612 and died on 20 November 1612; he was buried in Kelston.

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The above picture is of a relation, Lord Harington of Exton, of which there have been many, and they are often confused with Sir John Harington of Kelston (of whom a portrait, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, London, is on show Montacute House, Somerset, England and another is here.) The exact relationship between the John Harington of Kelston and the line of John Harington of Exton has not been established. Apparently John of Kelston did not know the pedigree of his obscure grandfather, Alexander of Stepney. Nevertheless it is generally assumed that he was also descended from the first Lord Harington of Aldingham a baron in Edward II's time.

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