Hon. and Rev. John Harbord (1832-1900)

The Honourable John Morden Harbord was born on 21 February 1832, the fifth son of Edward Harbord (1781-1835), 3rd Baron Suffield, his third son by his second wife, Emily Harriot née Shirley.

On 14 April 1857 he married Caroline Penelope Hamond, daughter of Anthony Hamond of Westacre, Norfolk. The ceremony, which was performed at Westacre by the Reverend W H Gurney, was a double wedding. At the same time that Caroline Hamond married the Honourable John Harbord, the bride’s sister, Katherine Sarah Hamond, married Somerville Gurney, son of Daniel Gurney and the late Lady Harriet Gurney. The Gurneys, a prominent Quaker family in Norfolk, derived their wealth from banking.

He appears on the 1861 census with his wife, the first of their two children, and five servants, at the Rectory in West Harling, Norfolk. He gave as his profession ‘Vicar of West Harling.'

He appears on the 1871 census, with his now much larger family, living at Morden College, Blackheath, in south-east London. He gave as his profession ‘Priest and Chaplain of the College.' Established by Sir John Morden (1623-1708), Morden College was, and indeed still is, a charitable institution run as a home for retired merchants. Given the Reverend Harbord’s middle name, the founder of the college was probably one of his ancestors.

The Honourable and Reverend John Harbord was later the Rector of Southrepps in Norfolk. He died on 23 November 1900 at the age of 68.

One of his sons, Admiral Richard Morden Harbord, succeeded as 10th Baron Suffield in 1946. The Rev. John Harbord had at least six sons, since on 11 July 1893 the Times carried an announcement that Cecil Edward Harbord, sixth son of the Honourable and Reverend John Harbord, had died, aged 22, of typhoid fever on 7 July at Eddy, New Mexico, USA.

Photographed by Camille Silvy on 16 November 1860.