Long Description:English political theorist of classical republicanism, best known
for his controversial work, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656).
Early life
James Harrington was born in 1611 in Upton, Northamptonshire,
eldest son of Sir Sapcote(s) Harrington of Rand, Lincolnshire who
died 1629, and great-nephew of the first Lord Harington of Exton
who died 1615. His mother was Jane Samwell (or Samuell) of Upton,
daughter of Sir William Samwell.
He was also for a time a resident, with his father, in the Manor
House at the village of Milton Malsor, Northamptonshire.
A blue plaque on the Manor house marks this fact.
The village church contains a quite decorative plaque on the
Chancel wall, on the south side, to Dame Jane, the late wife of Sir
Sapcote(s). According to a memorial in Holy Cross Church in Milton,
she died on 30 March 1619 when James was 7 or 8 years old.
Memorial to Harrington's mother, Dame Jane, Holy Cross Church,
Milton Malsor, England The memorial reads, in modern English but
punctuated as in the original
"Here under lies the body of Dame Jane, daughter of Sir William
Samwell Knight, & late wife to Sir Sapcotes Harington(sic) of
Milton Knight, by whom he had issue 2 sons & 3 daughters, viz
James, William, Jane, Anne & Elizabeth. Which Lady died March
30 1619".
Childhood and Education
Knowledge of Harrington's childhood and early education is
practically non-existent; both, it seems, were conducted at the
family manor in Rand. In 1629, he entered Trinity College, Oxford
as a gentleman commoner and left two years later with no degree.
For a brief time, one of his tutors was the royalist High Churchman
William Chillingworth. He entered then abruptly left the Middle
Temple despising lawyers forever, an animus which later appeared in
his writings.
Youth
By this time, Harrington's father had passed away, and his
inheritance helped pay his way through several years of continental
travel. He enlisted in a Dutch militia regiment (apparently seeing
no service), before touring the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany,
France and Italy. Toland says while visiting the Vatican circa
1634-36, he 'refused to kiss the Pope's foot' , and that a trip
through Venice helped bolster his knowledge of the Italian
republics. Harrington appears to have returned to England no later
than 1636; the following decade, including his comings and goings
during the Civil Wars, are largely unaccounted for by anything
other than unsubstantiated stories of the ilk: that he accompanied
Charles I to Scotland in 1639 in connection with the first Bishops'
War; and that he came to Parliament's financial assistance with
loans and solicitations in 1641-42 and in 1645. Otherwise, he
appears to have simply "resided at Rand, an unmarried country
gentleman of studious tastes."
Harrington's apparent political loyalty to Parliament interfered
not all with a strong personal devotion to the King. Following his
capture, Harrington accompanied a "commission" of MPs appointed to
persuade Charles to move from Newcastle to Holmby House, as to be
nearer London. When a further attempt was made to forcibly transfer
the King to the capital, Harrington successfully intervened. In May
1647, he became a gentleman groom of the royal bedchamber; we see
him acting in that capacity through the end of the year and also in
1648 at Hurst Castle and at Carisbrooke. Sometime around New Year
1649, his attendance on the King was abruptly terminated by
parliamentarians furious, it is said, over his refusal to swear to
report anything he might hear of a royal escape attempt. At least
two contemporary accounts have Harrington with Charles on the
scaffold, but these do not rise above the level of rumor.
Oceana and imprisonment
Detail of inscription on Dame Jane's memorial Holy Cross
ChurchAfter Charles' death Harrington devoted his time to the
composition of his The Commonwealth of Oceana, a work agreeable
perhaps to no one but its author. By order of England's then Lord
Protector Oliver Cromwell, it was seized when passing through the
press. Harrington, however managed to secure the favour of
Cromwell's favourite daughter, Mrs Claypole; the work was restored
to him, and appeared in 1656, newly dedicated to Cromwell. The
views embodied in Oceana, particularly those bearing on vote by
ballot and rotation of magistrates and legislators, Harrington and
others (who in 1659 formed a club called the "Rota") endeavoured to
push practically, but with no success.
Following the Stuart Restoration, on 28 December 1661,
Harrington was arrested on a charge of conspiring against the
government in the "Bow Street" cabal and, without a trial, was
thrown into the Tower. There, he was "badly treated" until his
sisters succeeded in bribing his jailers to obtain a writ of habeas
corpus. Before it could be executed, however, the authorities
rushed him to St Nicholas Island off the coast of Plymouth. Other
relatives won Harrington's release to the fort at Plymouth by
posting a £5000 bond. Thereafter, his general state of health
promptly plunged and quickly deteriorated, apparently from his
ingestion on medical advice of the addictive drug guaiacum.
Harrington's mind appeared to be affected. He suffered
"intermittent delusions;" one observer judged him "simply mad." He
recovered only a bit, then slipped decidedly downhill. He proceeded
to suffer attacks of gout and palsy before falling victim to a
paralyzing stroke. In 1675, just two years before his death, he
married "a Mrs Dayrell, his 'old sweetheart'", the daughter of a
Buckinghamshire noble. The short-lived couple had no children.
Following his death at Little Ambry, he was buried next to Sir
Walter Raleigh in St Margaret's Church, Westminster.
Harrington has often been confused with his cousin Sir James
Harrington, 3rd Baronet of Ridlington, MP, a member of the
parliamentary commission which tried Charles I, and twice president
of Cromwell's Council of State. He was subsequently excluded from
the Indemnity and Oblivion Act which pardoned most for taking up
arms against the King during the Civil Wars (1642-1646).
Editorial history
Harrington's manuscripts have vanished; his printed writings
consist of Oceana, and papers, pamphlets, aphorisms and treatises,
many of which are devoted to its defence. The first two editions
are known as the "Chapman" and the "Pakeman". Their contents are
nearly identical. His Works, including the Pakeman Oceana and the
somewhat important A System of Politics, were first edited with
biography by John Toland in 1700. Toland's edition, with numerous
substantial additions by Thomas Birch, appeared first in Dublin in
1737 and 1758, and then in England in 1747 and 1771. Oceana was
reprinted in Henry Morley's Universal Library in 1883; S.B.
Liljegren reissued a fastidiously-prepared version of the Pakeman
edition in 1924.
Harrington's modern editor is J.G.A. Pocock, Professor of
History Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. In 1977,
he edited and published a thoroughly comprehensive, and what has
become the definitive, compilation of Harrington tracts, along with
a lengthy editorial/historical introduction. Harrington's prose was
marred by what Pocock described as an undisciplined work habit and
a conspicuous "lack of sophistication." He never attained the level
of "a great literary stylist." For example, as contrasted with
Hobbes and Milton, nowhere to be found are:
"important shades of meaning...conveyed [through] rhythm,
emphasis and punctuation; ...He wrote hastily, in a baroque and
periodic style in which he more than once lost his way. He suffered
from Latinisms...his notions of how to insert quotations,
translations and references in his text were at times
productive
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