James Harrington

James Harrington (or Harington) (3 January 1611 – 11 September 1677) was an English political theorist of classical republicanism, best known for his controversial work, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656). This work was an exposition on an ideal constitution, designed to facilitate the development of a utopian republic.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).[2] According to a memorial in Holy Cross Church in Milton, she died on 30 March 1619 when James was 7 or 8 years old. 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".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.