James Edmund Harting - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

James Edmund Harting died aged 86 on 16 January 1928 in Weybridge, Surrey, where he had lived most of his life and is buried in the Town Cemetery just off Brooklands Road. The inscription on his headstone reads:

Pray for the Soul of Elizabeth Maria wife of James Edmund Harting of Weybridge, in the Co. of Surrey, who departed this life 25th Jan 1907. Also of James Edmund Harting Died 16th, January 1928 Aged 85 Years . Also Etheldreda Mary Harting Died 23rd, Jan 1942 Aged 71.

He had married Elizabeth Lynch, daughter of J. M. Lynch of Whiteleas, Co. Kildare, Ireland, in 1868. There was a son, Hugh, and a daughter, Etheldreda, to the marriage.

The Field obituary sums up the personality of Harting as follows:

J.E. Harting was modest and unassuming but he knew the value of knowledge, and never hesitated to use the authority of his long experience. By never presuming to know too much, he impressed the merit of his writing upon many a man of greater fame. He made very little money, for he worked for what he loved, because he loved it first as a sportsman and a gentleman, and he expected fair treatment, which he invariably extended to others.

Harting’s magnificent personal library was dispersed at his death at a sale by Hodgson & Co. on 26 April 1928 and the remainder was given to Downside Abbey in 1934 by his surviving daughter-Etheldreda. Harting's son Hugh also attended Downside in 1880 followed by his great-great grandsons James Harting Courtenay in 1977 and William Harting Courtenay in 1985.