The Harbord baronetcy, of Suffield in the County of Norfolk, had been created in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 22 March 1746 for his father Sir William Harbord, also a former Member of Parliament and who represented what are now termed the "rotten boroughs" of Bere Alston and Dunwich.

[1] Born William Morden, he assumed the surname of Harbord by Act of Parliament in 1742 in compliance with the Will of his maternal uncle.

His younger son, the fifth Baron (who succeeded his half-brother), served in 1886 as Master of the Buckhounds in William Gladstone's third administration, being sworn of the Privy Council the same year, and was appointed KCB (1876) and GCVO (1901).

His eldest son, the sixth Baron, was Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard (Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords) from 1915 to 1918.

The eleventh Baron served in the British Army during World War II being awarded the Military Cross in 1950, among other decorations.