My mom’s family is the longest unbroken American
family line in my background, starting in 1630 and ending in my case with my
mother’s death in 2014: 385 years, 11 generations. Her immigrant ancestor James
Harrington was the brother-in-law
of Arabella Clinton, for whom the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet, the Arabella was named. Her father, Thomas Clinton, 3rd
Earl of Lincoln, was one of the backers of the venture. There is a
street named after him in Boston, right next to Faneuil Hall. I discovered
there one time when I was eating a $14 pretzel.
As is well known, we inherit most of our nature from our longest
and strongest family lines. And the Harringtons, as it happens, were not model
Puritans. James was the son of Sir John Harington, Queen
Elizabeth’s Godson, who was mostly known for writing naughty satircal poems and making flip and disrespectful jokes
at court, earning him the nickname “The Saucy Godson”.I feel a STRONG
connection to this ancestor. Posterity
remembers Harrington best for also inventing the flush toilet, which is said by
some to be called “John” in his honor.
Whereas John had merely
been critical of the monarchy in a provocative way; his son James up and joined
the Puritans and sailed to America. But he died almost immediately upon
arriving, leaving his tween son Benjamin
in the care of a cruel Puritan uncle Charles
Clinton-Fiennes. Ben ran away from him and proceeded to grow up to be a fairly
wayward, churlish borderline criminal specimen. And HIM I take to be the true
founder of the American branch of my mother’s family.
