Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harington, John Herbert
HARINGTON, JOHN HERBERT (d. 1828), orientalist, entered the service of the East India Company at Calcutta as a writer on 1 Aug. 1780, was appointed assistant in the revenue department in 1781, revenue Persian translator in 1783, puisne judge of the Dewanny Adawlut, and magistrate of Dinajpore on 1 May 1793; sub-secretary to the secret department, and examiner and reporter to the Sudder Dewanny Adawlut on 6 Dec. 1793; registrar of the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut on 15 Feb. 1796; fourth member of the board of revenue on 3 June 1799; puisne judge of the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut on 1 April 1801; and chief judge of the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut on 17 Dec. 1811. He came home on furlough in 1819, and returned to India in 1822, when he was chosen provisionally member of the supreme council (21 Dec.), was appointed senior member of the board of revenue for the western provinces, and agent to the governor-general at Delhi on 1 Aug. 1823; was senior member of the Sudda special commission in the following October; and was chosen a member of the supreme council and president of the board of trade on 22 April 1825. He returned to England in 1828, and died at London on 9 April in that year.
Harington was also for some years honorary professor of the laws and regulations of the British government in India in the college of Fort William, founded by the Marquis Wellesley in 1800, and was afterwards president of the council of the college. He is best known as the editor of 'The Persian and Arabic works of Sa'dee,' Calcutta, 1791-1795, 2 vols., fol. He also published 'An Elementary Analysis of the Laws and Regulations enacted by the Governor-General in Council at Fort William in Bengal for the Civil Government of the British Territories under that Presidency,' Calcutta, 1805-17, 3 vols. fol. A volume of 'Extracts' from this work appeared at Calcutta in 1866, 8vo.
[Dodwell and Miles's Bengal Civil Servants; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Lincoln's Inn Library Cat.]