Elizabeth Harington

Elizabeth Harington (died in 1618) was an English aristocrat. Life Elizabeth Harington was the daughter of James Harington of Exton and Lucy Sidney, the daughter of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, Kent. Three of Elizabeth's letters to her sister Mabel Noel are preserved, attesting to the literary culture of their childhood home. In 1557 she married Edward Montagu of Boughton, near Kettering. Elizabeth and her husband attended the funeral of Mary, Queen of Scots at Peterborough Cathedral in 1587. Her aunt, Frances, Countess of Sussex, bequeathed her a gown of black velvet embroidered with broken trees, and left her husband Edward a suite of tapestry depicting the story of Judith and Holofernes. After her husband died in 1602, Elizabeth lived at Hemington. Though her eyesight deteriorated with age, she continued to work on her embroidery. In July 1616, when King James came to hunt in nearby Geddington woods during his progress through Northamptonshire, her eldest son Edward showed the King a handkerchief that his mother had sewn as a "wonder", and they spoke of her good works and piety.