William Harrington (knight)

Garter arms of Sir William Haryngton

Sir William Harrington of Hornby (d. 1440), son of Sir Nicholas Harrington, was an early fifteenth-century English northern knight, fighting in the Hundred Years' War and serving the crown in the north of England.

War in France[]

He served Henry V while the latter was Prince of Wales, and in 1415 fought at the Battle of Agincourt as the king's standard-bearer. He was elected a knight of the Garter two years later, and, acting again as standard-bearer at the siege of Rouen in 1419, he was badly wounded.^[1]

Family[]

At some point he is known to have married Margaret Neville of Hornby, Lancashire.^[1] This was not, however the principal branch of the magnatial Neville family, and his new wife was not initially an heiress. However, through the death of her niece and great-nephew, she became a co-heiress with Sir John Langton of the family estates, and Harrington, jure uxoris, eventually gained Hornby Castle in 1433.^[1] His marriage also gave him a connection to the duke of Exeter, husband of Margaret's niece.^[2] Around 1420 he married his heir Thomas to his newly acquired ward, Elizabeth Dacre, which brought him in (dower) Dacre's castles of Heysham and Tatham. He died in 1440.^[3]

Royal service and offices[]

He was sheriff of Yorkshire four times from 1408, and was appointed to various royal offices in the duchy of Lancaster in Lancashire, including the important position of chief-steward of the north in 1428.^[1] In 1423, he had been part of a committee to negotiate with the Scots over the intended release of James I, who had been captured by the English on his way to France in 1408.^[4] Four years later, he led an embassy to James in an attempt to make him pay the balance of his ransom.^[5]

References[]