HARINGTON, James (by 1517-92), Exton, Rutland.

James Harington’s patrimony made him the leading landowner in Rutland and he was to add considerably to the family’s lands there and in neighbouring counties. Shortly before his death Lord Burghley included him in a list of ‘knights of great possessions’ who were fit to be made barons and his eldest son John was created one in 1603. From the time he became head of the family Harington could secure the knighthood of the shire almost as a matter of course. The Protestant leaning which may have kept him off the commission of the peace proved no bar to his election to the last three Marian Parliaments and it was not so pronounced as to cause him to oppose one of the government’s bills in 1555. Although he was to sit in four further Parliaments and to be active in county administration, his failure to take advantage of his powerful connexions in Elizabeth’s reign suggests that he was content with the life of a country gentleman. He died on 24 Jan. 1592.CPR, 1554-5, p. 249; 1555-7, p. 244; 1560-3, pp. 90, 392; Lansd. 104, f. 51; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 37; Pevsner, Leics. and Rutland, 297.