John Harington (treasurer)


John Harington was an English official working for Henry VIII.

Life

Harington lived at Stepney, and is often confused with Sir John Harington of Exton in Rutland, who filled the post of treasurer to the king's camps and buildings. John Harington of Stepney held various offices, but was not 'treasurer', an illegitimate daughter of John Malte by Joan Dingley, who was the king's tailor. In 1546, John Malte had purchased the manor of Kelston in Somerset on behalf of himself and Etheldreda alias Digneley, ‘bastard daughter of the said John Digneley alias Dobson’, and on to Sept. 1546 he made Etheldreda, ‘my bastard daughter begotten upon the body of Joan Digneley’, his chief legatee and recipient of all his property in Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Somerset. Etheldreda later died around 1556, leaving behind her husband and daughter Hester.
Harington entered the service of Princess Elizabeth. He was a cultivated man and a poet, who in his visits to Elizabeth at Hatfield turned his talents to the praises of her six gentlewomen, but soon singled out among them Isabella Markham, daughter of Sir John Markham of Gotham. He married her early in 1559. Five years before their marriage he was imprisoned in the Tower at the same time as the Princess Elizabeth; his first wife and Isabella, both being her Ladies-in-Waiting, had accompanied the princess. In 1561 their son John was born, and Elizabeth, who had now ascended the throne, repaid their loyalty by acting as his godmother. He later became known as a writer at her court, where he was often in trouble. Queen Elizabeth I also granted him the Stoughton Grange Estate in Leicestershire.