James Harrington

Writer

James Harrington, scholar, was buried on the south side of the chancel of St Margaret's church Westminster "within the Communion rails". But his gravestone was later moved to the north side and is now invisible under the organ.

A book published in 1708 records the inscription. It says:

"Here lies James Harrington, Gent. eldest son of Sir Sapcote(s) Harrington Kt.[Knight] of Rand in the county of Lincoln and of Jane his wife, daughter of William Samuel (or Samwell) Kt. of Upton in the county of Northampton, who died the seventh day of September in the sixty sixth year of his age, the year of Our Lord 1677. Neither virtue nor the gifts of the spirit shall be able to deliver the body from corruption (though the pledge of the love of God shall deliver the immortal spirit) Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return. Gen.3.19"

His date of death was actually 10th September 1677. The coat of arms on the stone show "sable, a fret argent impaled with a lion rampant of the first, gorged with a ducal coronet or". He had a residence in the Little Almonry near Westminster Abbey.

He was born in 1611 at Upton and was a grandson of Sir James Harrington, 1st Baronet of Ridlington. He had a brother William and three sisters. After travelling abroad (he spoke several languages) he enlisted in an English regiment in the Netherlands. In 1675 he married a daughter of Sir Marmaduke Dayrell (or Darell) but they had no children. His best known work is Oceana. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason but later released after pressure from his family and his ill health.