Sir John and his wife Lady Mary held staunch Puritan beliefs.
From an online discussion of the Harrington genealogy by William Harrington http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/harrington/4602/:
Harrington is one of the oldest family names in the English language. It derives from the name of an ancient Celtic coastal village in the north of England called Haefertun – ‘The Place of The Cattle People’. (It is nowadays the Cumbrian village of ‘Harrington’) Our earliest known ancestor was a local chief called Osulf of Fleminby. Osulf settled one of his sons, Robertus, at nearby Haefertun. Thereby Robertus became known as Robertus de (of) Haefertun. Over the years the name of Haefertun corrupted to Hafrinctuna (Romans), de Hafrinctuna and de Haveringham (Normans), de Haverington (Anglo Saxon) and finally to its present form of Harrington (English Middle Ages). Since those early times there have been numerous variations to the surname. One branch of the English family spells its name with only one r. i.e. ‘Harington’.
From his Wikipedia entry:
John was an English courtier, author and translator popularly known as the inventor of the flush toilet. He became a prominent member of Queen Elizabeth I's court, and was known as her "saucy Godson".
