Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer

The Right Honourable The Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer KG
Lord High Treasurer
In office 30 May 1711 – 30 July 1714
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	Commission of the Treasury
Succeeded by	The Duke of Shrewsbury
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 11 August 1710 – 4 June 1711
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	John Smith
Succeeded by	Robert Benson
Secretary of State for the Northern Department
In office 18 May 1704 – 13 February 1708
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	Sir Charles Hedges
Succeeded by	Henry Boyle
Speaker of the House of Commons
In office February 1701 – 25 October 1705
Monarch	William III Anne
Preceded by	Sir Thomas Littleton
Succeeded by	John Smith
Personal details
Born	(1661-12-05)5 December 1661 Covent Garden, Middlesex Kingdom of England
Died	Westminster, Middlesex Kingdom of Great Britain
Resting place	Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire
Political party	Tory, originally Country Whig
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Foley Sarah Middleton
Parents	Sir Edward Harley Abigail Stephens

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer KG (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724), was a British politician and statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory Ministry. He was raised to the peerage as an earl in 1711. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as Lord High Treasurer, effectively Queen Anne's chief minister. He has been called a Prime Minister, though it is generally accepted that the position was first held by Sir Robert Walpole in 1721.

Harley's government agreed to the Treaty of Utrecht with France in 1713, bringing an end to twelve years of British involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1714 he fell from favour following the accession of the first monarch of the House of Hanover, George I and was for a time imprisoned in the Tower of London by his political enemies.

He was also a noted literary figure and served as a patron of both the October Club and the Scriblerus Club. Harley Street is sometimes said to be named after him, although it was his son Edward Harley who actually developed the area.

Early life: 1661–1688

Harley was born in Bow Street, London, in 1661, the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley, a prominent landowner in Herefordshire and his wife Abigail Stephens and the grandson of Sir Robert Harley and his third wife, the celebrated letter-writer Brilliana, Lady Harley. He was educated at Shilton, near Burford, in Oxfordshire, in a small school which produced at the same time a Lord High Treasurer (Harley himself), a Lord High Chancellor (Lord Harcourt) and a Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (Lord Trevor). Harley then spent some time at Foubert's Academy, but disliked it. He entered the Inner Temple on 18 March 1682, but was never called to the bar.

The principles of Whiggism and Nonconformism were taught him at an early age, and he never formally abandoned his family's religious opinions, although he departed from them in politics.

His father was wrongly imprisoned for suspected support for the Monmouth rebellion in 1685 and Harley wrote that "we are not a little rejoiced" at Monmouth's defeat.

Glorious Revolution: 1688–1689

By 1688 Harley was acting as his father's agent in promoting support for William, Prince of Orange and the Protestant cause during the expected general election against the policies of James II. When William landed in England on 5 November, Sir Edward Harley and his son immediately raised a troop of horse in support of the cause of William III, and took possession of the city of Worcester on his behalf. Harley was sent to report to William, meeting him at Henley. Harley obtained a commission as a major of militia foot in Herefordshire, which he held for several years.

Backbench MP: 1689–1701

This recommended Robert Harley to the notice of the Boscawen family, and led to his election, in April 1689, as the parliamentary representative of Tregony, a borough under their control, whilst at the same time acting as High Sheriff of Herefordshire. He sat for Tregony for one parliament, after which, in 1690, he was elected by the constituency of New Radnor, which he represented until his elevation to the peerage in 1711. From an early age, Harley paid particular attention to the conduct of public business, taking special care over the study of the forms and ceremonies of the House of Commons.

Harley supported the Toleration Bill through the Commons and hoped for "an equal settlement of religion" by comprehension within the Church of England by the inclusion of Presbyterians, however this was not achieved. He also helped to defeat a Tory amendment to the Bill of Rights that would have enabled James II's son James Francis Edward Stuart to inherit the crown if he converted to Protestantism. On 14 May, Harley delivered his maiden speech in which he reminded the House of what he viewed as the recent Tory persecutions such as the harsh punishment of Monmouth's followers and said this injustice must be remedied.

After a series of French victories in Flanders during the early years of the Nine Years' War, Harley believed that the subordination of English soldiers to Dutch officers was the cause of heavy English casualties. He therefore proposed a motion that future appointments of English foot regiments should be manned by Englishmen, which the House passed on 23 November 1692. He also opposed Lord Somers' proposed Abjuration Bill which would have made office-holders take an oath against recognising James II as the lawful king upon penalty of dismissal and imprisonment on first refusal and the penalties of high treason upon second refusal to take the oath.

During the early 1690s Harley became a leader, second only to Paul Foley, of the 'Old Whigs' who were willing to co-operate with Tories in pursuing 'Country Party' measures against the ministerial or court Whigs in office, the so-called Whig Junto. In December 1690 he was elected to the Commission of Public Accounts to "examine, take and state" the accounts of the realm since William's accession, as expenditure had ballooned.

Harley supported a Bill to exclude from the Commons holders of government office and placemen in an effort to weaken court patronage. In taking part in the debates, Harley wrote: "I hope we have shown the parts of honest men and lovers of our country". He also supported the Triennial Bill to limit the maximum life of a Parliament to three years. During the debates in early 1693 he claimed long parliaments were not as representative as short-lived ones and he drew from his pocket a copy of King William's Declaration of 1688 in which he promised frequent parliaments.

In 1696 Harley advocated the founding of a Land Bank that would serve the agriculture interest as the Bank of England served the monied interest.

After the general election of 1698, Harley emerged as the leader of the combined Country Whig-Tory opposition alliance against the Junto, or what Harley called the 'New Country Party'. Also in this year he began his association with Sidney Godolphin, and through him ultimate entry into the circle around Princess Anne.

In November 1698 and in January 1700 Harley was approached by the ministry to accept office in the government, on the later occasion being offered the Secretaryship of State. He refused on both occasions as he did not want to serve with the Whigs. Upon the death in July 1700 of Anne's only surviving child, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, King William III became concerned with the succession and believed it imperative that the crown should go to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, or her descendants should Anne die without child. He wrote to Harley and summoned him to an audience, where he asked Harley what demands the Commons would make in order to be persuaded to pass a Bill incorporating the new line of succession. It was agreed that the Bill would include further limitations of the monarch's power. Afterwards, William appointed him Speaker of the House of Commons.

Speaker of the House of Commons: 1701–1705

After the general election of February 1701 until the parliamentary dissolution in 1705 he held the office of Speaker. From 18 May 1704 he combined this office with that of the Secretary of State for the Northern Department, displacing The Earl of Nottingham.

As Speaker he oversaw the passage of the Act of Settlement 1701, as previously agreed with King William. Harley was pleased that both the Whigs and the Tories agreed on placing further limits on the power of the crown and was reported to have said that "he hoped in a little time our infamous distinctions and parties, but particularly Jacobitism, should be wholly abolished and extirpated".

Northern Secretary: 1704–1708

Harley was an early practitioner of 'spin'; he recognised the political importance of careful management of the media. In 1703 Harley first made use of Daniel Defoe's talents as a political writer. This proved so successful that he was later to employ both Delarivier Manley and Jonathan Swift to pen pamphlets for him for use against his many opponents in politics.

During the time of his office, the union with Scotland was brought about. At the time of his appointment as Secretary of State, Harley had given no outward sign of dissatisfaction with the Whigs, and it was mainly through Marlborough's influence that he was admitted to the ministry.

For some time, so long indeed as the victories of the great English general cast a glamour over the policy of his friends, Harley continued to act loyally with his colleagues. But in the summer of 1707 it became evident to Sidney Godolphin that some secret influence behind the throne was shaking the confidence of the Queen in her ministers. The sovereign had resented the intrusion into the administration of the impetuous Lord Sunderland, and had persuaded herself that the safety of the Church of England depended on the fortunes of the Tories. These convictions were strengthened in her mind by the new favourite Abigail Masham (a cousin of the Duchess of Marlborough through her mother, and of Harley on her father's side), whose coaxing contrasted favourably in the eyes of the Queen with the haughty manners of her old friend, the Duchess of Marlborough.

Robert Harley by Jonathan Richardson, c. 1710.

Both the Duchess and Godolphin were convinced that this change in the disposition of the queen was due to the influence of Harley and his relatives; but he was permitted to remain in office. Later, an ill-paid and poverty-stricken clerk, William Gregg, in Harley's office, was found to have given the French enemy copies of many documents which should have been kept from the knowledge of all but the most trusted advisers of the court, and it was found that through the carelessness of the head of the department the contents of such papers became the common property of all in his service. The Queen was informed by Godolphin and Marlborough that they would no longer serve with Harley. They did not attend her next council, on 8 February 1708, and when Harley proposed to proceed with the business of the day the Duke of Somerset drew attention to their absence. The Queen found herself forced (11 February) to accept the resignations of both Harley and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke.

Opposition: 1708–1710

Harley was forced from office, but his cousin Abigail, who had recently married, continued in the Queen's service. Harley employed her influence without scruple, and not in vain. The cost of the protracted war with France, and the danger to the national church, the chief proof of which lay in the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, were the weapons which he used to influence the masses of the people. Marlborough himself could not be displaced, but his relations were dismissed from their posts in turn. When the greatest of these, Lord Godolphin, was ejected from office on 10 August 1710, five commissioners to the treasury were appointed; among them was Harley as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Chancellor of the Exchequer: 1710–1711

It was the aim of the new chancellor to frame an administration from the moderate members of both parties, and to adopt with but slight changes the policy of his predecessors; but his efforts were doomed to disappointment. The Whigs refused to join an alliance with him, and the Tories, who were successful beyond their wildest hopes at the polling booths, could not understand why their leaders did not adopt a policy more favourable to the interests of their party.

Oxford (right), together with his friend and ally Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke and a portrait of Francis Atterbury. Engraving after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

The clamours of the wilder spirits, the country members who met at the October Club, began to be re-echoed even by those who were attached to the person of Harley, when, through an unexpected event, his popularity was restored at a bound. A French refugee, the former abbé La Bourlie (better known by the name of the Marquis de Guiscard), was being examined before the Privy Council of Great Britain on a charge of treason, when he stabbed Harley in the breast with a penknife (8 March 1711). To a man in good health the wounds would not have been serious, but the minister had been suffering from ill health and Swift had penned the prayer, "Pray God preserve his health, everything depends upon it". The joy of the nation on his recovery knew no bounds. Both Houses presented an address to the crown, a suitable response came from the Queen, and on Harley's reappearance in the Lower House the Speaker made an oration which was spread by broadsheet through the country.

One of the most pressing problems at this time was the major crisis in public finance caused by the need to pay for the war against France. The architect of Great Britain's finance was Lord Halifax, and he wrote to Harley on the first day that the new Treasury board met: "Your great abilities and your knowledge of the Revenue, will soon make you master of all the business, but how you will restore credit, and find money for the demands that will be upon you exceeds my capacity". Harley succeeded in restoring confidence under his tenure; whereas the Jacobite invasion scare of 1708 and the alarm caused by the Queen's illness in early 1714 both caused runs on the bank, Godolphin's fall did not precipitate one.

Lord High Treasurer: 1711–1714

On 23 May 1711 the minister became Baron Harley, of Wigmore in the County of Hereford, and Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (the latter, despite its form, being a single peerage). Harley claimed the title of Oxford because of his relationship through marriage to the previous holders, the De Veres. The title of Earl Mortimer was added in case a claim was laid to the Oxford earldom. On 29 May he was appointed Lord Treasurer, and on 25 October 1712 became a Knight of the Garter. Well might his friends exclaim that he had grown by persecutions, turnings out, and stabbings.

A further attempt was made on his life in November with the Bandbox Plot, in which a hat-box, armed with loaded pistols to be triggered by a thread within the package was sent to him; the assassination attempt was forestalled by the prompt intervention of Jonathan Swift.

With the sympathy which these attempted assassinations had evoked, and with the skill which the Lord Treasurer possessed for conciliating the calmer members of either political party, he passed several months in office without any loss of reputation. He rearranged the nation’s finances, and continued to support her generals in the field with ample resources for carrying on the campaign, though his emissaries were in communication with the French King, and were settling the terms of a peace independently of England's allies. After many weeks of vacillation and intrigue, when the negotiations were frequently on the point of being interrupted, the preliminary peace was signed, and in spite of the opposition of the Whig majority in the House of Lords, which was met by the creation of twelve new peers, the much-vexed Treaty of Utrecht was brought to a conclusion on 31 March 1713.

Harley pictured carrying the white staff of the Lord High Treasurer. Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

While these negotiations were under discussion the friendship between Oxford and St John, who had become Secretary of State in September 1710, was fast changing into hatred. The latter had resented the rise in fortune which the stabs of Guiscard had secured for his colleague, and when he was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron St John and Viscount Bolingbroke, instead of with an earldom, his resentment knew no bounds. The royal favourite, whose husband had been called to the Upper House as Baron Masham, deserted her old friend and relation for his more vivacious rival. The Jacobites found that, although the Lord Treasurer was profuse in his expressions of good will for their cause, no steps were taken to ensure its triumph, and they no longer placed reliance in promises which were repeatedly made and repeatedly broken. Even Oxford's friends began to complain of his dilatoriness, and to find some excuse for his apathy in ill-health, aggravated by excess in the pleasures of the table and by the loss of his favourite child. The confidence of Queen Anne was gradually transferred from Oxford to Bolingbroke; on 27 July 1714 the former surrendered his staff as lord treasurer, and on 1 August the queen died.

Imprisonment: 1714–1715

On the accession of George I of Great Britain, the defeated minister retired to Herefordshire, but a few months later his impeachment was decided upon and he was committed to the Tower of London on 16 July 1715. After an imprisonment of nearly two years, he was formally acquitted from the charges of high treason and high crimes and misdemeanours for which he had been impeached two years earlier and allowed to resume his place among the peers.

Later life: 1715–1724

Harley took little part in public affairs, and died almost unnoticed in London on 21 May 1724.

Literary importance

Harley's importance to literature cannot be overstated. As a patron of the arts, he was notable. As a preservationist, he was invaluable. He used his wealth and power to collect an unparalleled library. He commissioned the creation of ballad collections, such as The Bagford Ballads, and he purchased loose poems from all corners. He preserved Renaissance literature (particularly poetry), Anglo-Saxon literature that was then incomprehensible, and a great deal of Middle English literature. His collection, with that of his son Edward Harley, was sold to Parliament in 1753 for the British Museum by the Countess of Oxford and her daughter, the Duchess of Portland; it is known as the Harley Collection.

When he was in office, Harley promoted the careers of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay. He also wrote with them as a member of the Scriblerus Club. He, along with Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, contributed to the literary productions of the Club. His particular talent lay in poetry, and some of his work (always unsigned) has been preserved and may be found among editions of Swift's poetry. Additionally, he likely had some hand in the writing of The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, though it is impossible to tell how much.

In the opinion of the historian David C. Douglas, in Harley's time "the whole company of scholars looked up to Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, as the great Maecenas of English medieval learning, and they were right to do so, for he was the correspondent and benefactor of very many of them, and he deserved their gratitude as surely as he earned through his book-collecting the thanks of posterity".

Family

In May 1685 Harley married as his first wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Thomas Foley, and they had four children before she died in November 1691:

• Edward (1689–1741), who married Henrietta Cavendish Holles and succeeded as 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer;
• Robert, who died in infancy in 1690;
• Elizabeth (died 20 November 1713), who married Peregrine Osborne, later 3rd Duke of Leeds in 1712; and
• Abigail (died 15 July 1750), who married George Hay, later 8th Earl of Kinnoull in 1709.

After Elizabeth's death, Harley married Sarah (died 17 June 1737), daughter of Simon Middleton of Edmonton, London, on 18 September 1694. They had no children. He died in 1724 at his house in Albemarle Street, Westminster, and was buried at Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire.

References

• Brian W. Hill, Robert Harley: Speaker, Secretary of State and Premier Minister (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988). ISBN 0-300-04284-1
• E. S. Roscoe, Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Prime Minister, 1710–14 (London: Methuen, 1902). Appendices: I. Swift's character of the Earl of Oxford.--II. Money lent to the Queen by the Earl of Oxford.--III. Note on the manuscripts and letters of and relating to Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.
• W. A. Speck, ‘Harley, Robert, first earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007, accessed 18 Jan 2011.

Further reading

Biographies

• Sheila Biddle, Bolingbroke and Harley (London: Allen & Unwin, 1975).
• J. A. Downie, Robert Harley and the Press (Cambridge University Press, 1979).
• Elizabeth Hamilton, The Backstairs Dragon: A Life of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford (Hamish Hamilton, 1969).
• Angus McInnes, Robert Harley: Puritan Politician (Littlehampton Book Services, 1970).
• Miller, O.B. Robert Harley Earl of Oxford. The Stanhope Prize Essay, 1925. Oxford. Blackwell, 1925.

Background studies

• Abel Boyer, Political State of Great Britain (London: 1724, a semiannual publication).
• Gilbert Burnet, History of my Own Time 6 volumes, (London: 1838).
• William Cobbett, Thomas B. Howell, and J. Thomas, State Trials (London: 1809–26, part of a 34 vol. series).
• Keith Feiling, A History of the Tory Party, 1640–1714 (1924).
• Geoffrey Holmes, ‘Harley, St John and the Death of the Tory Party’, in Geoffrey Holmes (ed.), Britain after the Glorious Revolution 1689–1714 (London: Macmillan, 1969), pp. 216–237.
• William Edward Hartpole Lecky. History of England in the Eighteenth Century. London, 1878–90
• Edmund Lodge, Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain. London, 1850
• Thomas B. Macaulay, History of England (London, 1855).
• A. D. MacLachlan, ‘The Road to Peace 1710–13’, in Geoffrey Holmes (ed.), Britain after the Glorious Revolution 1689–1714 (London: Macmillan, 1969), pp. 197–215.
• James A. Manning, The Lives of the Speakers of the House of Commons (London: G. Willis, 1851).
• Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, History of England, Comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until the Peace of Utrecht (London: 1870).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Portraits of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Works relating to Robert Harley at the Internet Archive
• Archival material relating to Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer listed at the UK National Archives

Parliament of England
Preceded by Charles Boscawen Hugh Fortescue	Member of Parliament for Tregony 1689–1690 With: Hugh Fortescue	Succeeded by Sir John Tremayne Hugh Fortescue
Preceded by Sir Rowland Gwynne	Member of Parliament for Radnor 1690–1707	Succeeded by Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt	Speaker of the House of Commons of England 1701–1705	Succeeded by John Smith
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Parliament of England	Member of Parliament for Radnor 1707–1711	Succeeded by Lord Harley
Political offices
Preceded by Sir Rowland Gwynne	Custos Rotulorum of Radnorshire 1702–1714	Succeeded by The Lord Coningsby
Preceded by Sir Charles Hedges	Northern Secretary 1704–1708	Succeeded by Henry Boyle
Preceded by John Smith	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1710–1711	Succeeded by Robert Benson
In commission First Lord: The Earl Poulett	Lord High Treasurer 1711–1714	Succeeded by The Duke of Shrewsbury
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer 1711–1724	Succeeded by Edward Harley