The Harington[1] Baronetcy, of Ridlington in the county of Rutland, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 29 June 1611 for James Harington.[2] He was a descendant of John Harington, one of the Barons summoned to Parliament by Edward II. James's elder brother was John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton.[3][4][5][6] The second Baronet was a Royalist during the English Civil War. The third Baronet was a Major-General in the Parliamentarian Army and one of the judges appointed to try Charles I, although he refused to sit. He was nonetheless excepted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act and his title was forfeited for life in 1661. The ninth, eleventh, and twelfth Baronets were all judges. The family is one of two families to have produced three County Court judges.
The Rev. Richard Harington, son of the eighth baronet, was Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. Sir Charles Robert Harington (1897–1972), son of Reverend Charles Harington, second son of the eleventh Baronet, was Professor of Chemical Pathology at the University of London and Director of the National Institute for Medical Research. John Harington (1873–1943), fifth son of the eleventh Baronet, was a Brigadier-General in the British Army. David Gawen Champernowne (1912–2000), great-grandson of Arthur Champernowne (who assumed the surname of Champernowne in 1774), son of Reverend Richard Harington, second son of the sixth Baronet, was Professor of Statistics at the University of Oxford from 1948 to 1959 and Professor of Economics and Statistics at the University of Cambridge from 1970 to 1978. The second son of the current baronet is the actor Christopher "Kit" Harington, b. 1986.[7]