Harbord was born Harbord Morden at Thorpe, Norfolk, the eldest son of William Morden, later Sir William Harbord, 1st Baronet, and his wife Elizabeth Britiffe, daughter of Robert Britiffe, Recorder of Norwich.

In 1775 Harbord commissioned James Wyatt to make significant additions to the Gunton Hall, the family's country house.

He died in February 1810, aged 76, and was succeeded in the baronetcy and barony by his eldest son, William.

His younger son Edward was a radical politician and anti-slavery campaigner.

This biography of a baron or baroness in the Peerage of Great Britain (1707–1800) is a stub.