Edward Harley (Parliamentarian)

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For other persons named Edward Harley, see Edward Harley (disambiguation).

Sir Edward Harley (21 October 1624 – 18 December 1700) was an English Parliamentarian, born in Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire. Educated at Shrewsbury, Gloucester, and Oxford, he studied law, but took up arms in the Parliamentary cause against the King in 1642, though disapproving of military supremacy in the nation. He was shot in the arm during a skirmish in Gloucestershire in August 1644.^[1] By 1646 he was a member of Parliament for his native county, but his opposition to Cromwell brought about his banishment from it for 10 years, though he was rewarded at the Restoration by Charles II, who made him Governor of Dunkirk (1660). Despite his changes of front (for he was against the Stuarts once more at the revolution of 1688), Harley was a conscientious upholder of the rights of the people, who showed their appreciation by sending him continuously to Parliament. Though a churchman himself, he fought against any form of persecution of the dissenters, was without party prejudice, and was remembered more for his practical benefactions than for such theoretical performances as A Scriptural and Rational Account of the Christian Religion (1695).

He married and had two sons, Robert Harley (later Earl of Oxford) and Edward Harley (1664–1735).

[edit] Sources

Edward Harley at thePeerage.com
This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page

^ Noted in the Parliamentarian newsbook Mercurius Civicus, number 63, 1^st-8^th August 1644 (British Library, Thomason Tracts E.4[28])

Parliament of England
Preceded by Humphry Coningsby until 1644 Sir Robert Harley	Member of Parliament for Herefordshire with Sir Robert Harley c.1646 – Dec. 1648 but excluded Jan. 1647-June 1648	Succeeded by vacant
Parliament of England
Preceded by John Scudamore John Pateshal John Flacket Richard Read	Member of Parliament for Herefordshire with James Berry Bennet Hoskyns Benjamin Mason 1654–1656	Succeeded by not represented
Preceded by Robert Harley	Member of Parliament for Radnor 1661–1679	Succeeded by Griffith Jones
Preceded by The Viscount Scudamore Sir Herbert Croft, Bt	Member of Parliament for Herefordshire with Sir Herbert Croft, Bt 1679–1685	Succeeded by Sir John Morgan, Bt Sir John Hoskyns, Bt
Preceded by Sir John Morgan, Bt Sir John Hoskyns, Bt	Member of Parliament for Herefordshire with Sir John Morgan 1689–1690	Succeeded by Sir John Morgan, Bt Sir Herbert Croft, Bt
Preceded by Sir John Morgan, Bt Sir Herbert Croft, Bt	Member of Parliament for Herefordshire with Sir Herbert Croft, Bt 1693–1698	Succeeded by Henry Cornewall Henry Gorges