The History of PARLIAMENT

the House ofCommons 1690–1715

‘All self-respectinglibraries must possessthis authoritativeseries ...’

Financial TimesPUBLISHEDWITH THE

HISTORY OFPARLIAMENT

TRUST

Introductory price£250 until October 2002

Edited byEveline Cruickshanks Stuart Handleyand D. W. Hayton

Peter Tillemans,The House of Commons in session,c.1710.Frontispiece of Volume 1,reproduced by permission of the Palace of Westminster

The History of Parliament is one of thegreat enduring monuments oftwentieth-century historical researchand one of the most comprehensiveprosopographical projects everundertaken.These five volumes, devotedto the years 1690–1715, provide aunique research tool comprising an

introductory survey, detailed accountsof constituencies, and biographies of allmembers of the House of Commonsduring this period. Embodyingexhaustive original research, they standas a unique contribution to the politicaland social history of Britain during theAugustan period.

ContentsVolume I: Introductory Survey by D W Hayton, 958 pages.The Commons Journal Database on CD-ROM (with introduction and guide).

Volume II: Constituencies, 960 pages.

Volume III: Members A–F, 1152 pages.

Volume IV: Members G–N, 1072 pages.

Volume V: Members O–Z, 984 pages.

Key Features:

• Covers 1690–1715: the crucial period in the evolution of Parliament and party politics

• Introductory thematic survey by D.W. Hayton, drawing together information on Members, politics, procedure, electoral law and practice

• County-by-county accounts of constituencies and elections

• Detailed biographies of all Members who sat between 1690 and 1715

• Full database on parliamentary activity of each Member contained on supplementary CD-ROM (included with Volume I)

New for 2002, 1690–1715

£250introductory price

(retail price £300)

until 31 Oct 2002

the British House of Commons 1690–1715

Volume I:Introductory Survey

• Draws together themes and findings from the biography and constituency volumes

• Provides additional information on the operation of the House of Commons and the electoral system

• The most comprehensive and authoritative analysis ever producedof the operation of politics under the later Stuarts

Volume II:The Constituencies• Fascinating coverage of politics at a

local level

• Describes the interaction of electoralpatronage, personal interest and ambition, popular politics, bribery and corruption

• Covers every constituency at each election between 1690–1715,including the first Scottish elections to the Union Parliament in 1708

Volumes III–V:The Biographies

• Nearly 2,000 biographies, covering every Member of the House in the Period

• Authoritative accounts of the careers of central figures, including Robert Harley and Henry St John

• Includes many Members whose main achievement lay outside Parliament,such as Sir Christopher Wren andSir Isaac Newton

diary (, Sept., Nov. ); , Harley to Abigail Harley, Apr., , May, July, Aug. ; HHH, f. ;Kreienberg despatch Mar. ; Boyer, Pol. State, vii. ;Gregg, ; Orig. Pprs. ed. Macpherson, ii. . 9Turberville, i.–; Swift Corresp. ed. Williams, ii. ; iii. ; v. , –,; HMC Portland, v. ; PCC Spurway.

D. W. H.

HARLEY, Robert (–), of Brampton Bryan,Herefs.1

T Apr. –N R B

Nov. – May b. Dec. , st s. of Sir Edward Harley* by his nd w.;bro. of Edward*. educ. Shilton, Oxon. (Mr Birch),–; Sherwood Street Academy, London (M.Foubert), –; M. Temple . m. () May ,Elizabeth (d. Nov. ), da. of Thomas Foley I* ofWitley Court, Worcs., sis. of Edward Foley*, RichardFoley* and Thomas Foley III*, s. ( d.v.p.) da.; () Oct. , Sarah, da. of Simon Middleton of Edmonton,Mdx., s.p. suc. fa. ; cr. Earl of Oxford May ;KG Oct. .2

Sheriff, Herefs. Mar.–Nov. ; freeman, NewRadnor , Ludlow ; steward of crown manors,Rad. –; custos rot. Rad. –; warden,Sherwood Forest –.3

Commr. public accts. –; sec. of state (north)–; PC Apr. –May , Aug. –Sept.; commr. union with Scotland ; chancellor ofthe Exchequer –; ld. treasurer –; house-keeper, St. James’s Palace May–July .4

Commr. Greenwich Hosp. , Q. Anne’s Bounty; gov. Charterhouse by .5

Speaker of the House of Commons Feb. –Apr. .

Gov. S. Sea Co. –.6

FRS .

Not only was Harley the most important parliamen-tarian of his day; he remains the most extensively doc-umented. An inveterate hoarder, he left behind a vastarchive of letters, notes, memoranda, drafts, memoirs,petitions and assorted official papers. Yet despite thiswealth of documentation, there is much about himthat we do not know, and may never know. Deviousand secretive, Harley was a man whose motives andintentions were often a puzzle to his contemporaries; apolitical wizard and master of ‘schemes’, in his latteryears he was given such popular nicknames as‘Harlequin’, ‘the dragon’, or, most familiarly, ‘Robinthe trickster’. The air of mystery which surroundedhim was in part a natural emanation of his serpentineintelligence and love of intrigue. It also reflected themany paradoxes of his life and career: the moral

schemer; the Presbyterian who became a pillar of theChurch of England; the simple country squire whorevived for himself an ancient peerage title, andgloried in marrying his children into the nobility; theupright public servant who protected the corrupt; theself-righteous puritan who took to drink; the uxorioushusband accused of keeping mistresses; the devotee of‘Country’ principles who became an archetypal cour-tier; and the ‘moderate’ man, hating the ‘violence’ ofparties, who presided over one of the most partisanadministrations of this period.7

Harley grew up in a household dominated by hisfather, and pervaded by the heavy atmosphere ofPuritan religiosity. Sir Edward instilled into his chil-dren not only the principle that politics was a moralduty, a means of ‘doing good in one’s own generation’,as the Presbyterian divines had it, but also a proudbelief that the Harleys themselves boasted a pedigreeof virtuous public service, disdaining pecuniaryrewards in obeying the dictates of conscience. Self-examination featured often in correspondencebetween the brothers and sisters, and especially inletters to their father, before whom the young Robertwas often called to cast up the equivalent of a moralbalance sheet, to demonstrate the probity of hisconduct. This practice may well have prepared theway for the development in later life of a habit of cal-culation which resulted in the production of innumer-able notes and aides-mémoire on political andparliamentary strategy.8

It would take many years for Harley to free himselffrom his father’s influence; indeed, in some respects henever did. Religious meditations were as much afeature of his last years as they had been of his earlylife. The Scottish Presbyterian Robert Wodrow wascertainly convinced of his piety: ‘it is said, sometimeshe takes a bottle, but otherwise he is moral, and neverfails to pray with his family at night, and be it never solate ere he come in on post nights, yet still they must allwait till prayers’. On the other side, the journalistGeorge Ridpath was convinced that such ostentatiousPuritanism was a sham. He assured Wodrow thatHarley

was, even when a boy at the schools, observed to be trickyand cunning to a degree. He . . . is a person who makes astalking horse of his religion, and consequently [is] anatheist. He [Ridpath] has it from a minister to whom he[Harley] let his diary be seen, and he did so, he hears, toothers. It contains an account of his conversion, etc., andthis he discovers to not a few.

Increasingly, the tone of seriousness and earnestnessfound in Harley’s letters to Sir Edward and to other

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IINTRODUCTORY SURVEY

APPENDICES

Linlithgow and Montrose. As Cunningham’s patron,he could claim to have secured the seat for his candi-date, however slim his contribution had been in reality.The weakness of Mar’s interest, in a purely proprieto-rial sense, was demonstrated at the next election, whenhe shifted his ground to support Paterson in order onceagain to be seen to have backed the winner. From anearly stage Mar was convinced that Cunninghamwould not be able to defeat Paterson again. In smallmeasure the collapse of Cunningham’s position mayhave reflected some change in the popularity of the‘Whig’ interest in Stirlingshire, related to wearinesswith the war or disappointment with the Union, butthe key to the changed situation in the county wasalmost certainly Montrose’s decision to take no part inthe election, thus leaving Cunningham bereft ofmagnate support. Having obtained an importantfavour from government for one of Sir John Erskine’sfriends, Mar had also transformed Erskine fromenemy to client, and could therefore draw him awayfrom Cunningham if he wished. On the other side,Linlithgow was unlikely to prove difficult, once he hadbeen pacified by pledges of assistance in his ambitionto confirm a hereditary right to the governorship ofBlackness castle, though care was still necessary inhandling him, since his ready co-operation was alsorequired in the representative peers’ election. Withthis in mind, and believing Paterson in any case to bethe best prospect, certainly over Cunningham orErskine, Mar needed only to reassure himself thatPaterson would return his goodwill, and be prepared toacknowledge him as a patron rather than, or even aswell as, Hamilton. In the event, Mar gave Paterson hisbacking without any formal understanding havingbeen established. He was also careful to giveCunningham no cause to complain of ill treatment,with the result that Cunningham carried on to a pollundeterred, optimistic to the last that his kinsmanmight still help him or that his own reputation wouldcarry him through. The margin of Paterson’s victoryshowed a remarkable transformation in voting in onlytwo years, the principal reason seeming to be a highturnover in the electorate, amounting to about aquarter of the whole. Seven of those who had voted in did not reappear in , while there were ninenewcomers, of whom only four were actually addedto the roll. All seven of the absentees were onCunningham’s side, and it is tempting to assume thatthis represents the abstention of the Montrose inter-est. Erskine, who was elected praeses, voted forPaterson.6

Paterson’s marriage to Mar’s sister in cemented the connexion between the two men, and

with Mar’s access to Court patronage under RobertHarley’s* ministry making him an even more formid-able figure, opposition wilted. Cunningham, who hadbeen returned for the burghs district in after hisdisappointment in the county, did not attend anotherfreeholders’ court in this period, nor did Montroseattempt to interfere. Both the by-election in December (arising from Paterson’s appointment to an officeof profit under the crown) and the general election in were uncontested. Fewer freeholders attended in: in all, only four of whom had voted forCunningham in . The following year Mar andLord Kilsyth presented to the Queen an address fromthe Stirlingshire gentry thanking her for communicat-ing the peace terms, the tenor of which was markedlyTory and pro-ministerial, referring as it did to the‘long, bloody and expensive war’ and to the malignefforts of ‘faction at home, and enemies abroad’. At thesame time the survival of Whiggish sentiment in theshire, not to mention in the county town itself (seeS B), was demonstrated by the addresssent up in March on the conclusion of the peace,which Lord Ilay presented. Describing the war ashaving been necessary to restore the ‘balance of power’in Europe and to give ‘satisfaction’ to the allies, itpointedly welcomed the Queen’s assurances of hercare and concern for the Hanoverian Succession. Butonce Linlithgow’s festering impatience with the min-istry had been lanced by the completion of the long-promised grant of the Blackness castle governorship,any likelihood of opposition in the general electionvanished. In more freeholders attended, includ-ing the Haldanes, which may indicate that Montrosewas at least considering an intervention, and theelectoral roll was made up, according to the provisionsof the recent statute, with names in all. But withErskine once more praeses, Paterson was re-electedagain ‘unanimously’.7

¹Unless otherwise stated, this article draws on the account of elec-tions given in Sunter thesis, –. ²Add. , f. ; Orig. Pprs.ed. Macpherson, ii. . ³Orig. Pprs. –; Hist. Scot. Parl. –,, ; P. W. J. Riley, Union, ; Atholl mss at Blair Atholl, box, bdle. II, nos. , , Lady Tullibardine to [Ld. Tullibardine], Oct. , Haldane to [same], Oct. ; Add. , f. .⁴SRO, Stirling sheriff’s ct. recs. SC//, list of voters, , listof enrollments, ; SC//, freeholders’ ct. bk. –, pp.–; SRO, Montrose mss GD///, Linlithgow to Montrose,; GD//, Erskine to same, June ; SRO, Mar andKellie mss GD///, Mar to Sir David Nairne, June. ⁵Add. , f. ; , f. ; Montrose mss GD///, Linlithgow to Montrose, . ⁶Mar and Kellie mssGD///, John Erskine* to Ld. Grange (Hon. JamesErskine†), July ; GD///, , , Mar to same, June, , July ; Stirling sheriff ct. recs. SC//, pp. –;SC//, list of enrolments, . ⁷Mar and Kellie mssGD///, Sir John Erskine, rd Bt., to Grange, [ Aug.

S

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appear he has been. Though I believe he will be for you, at

least if some unexpected thing come not in the way.

Argyll evidently could not ‘do better’, for at the electo-

ral court Erskine was chosen unopposed. Nine voters

attended, all of them previously enrolled and repre-

senting a combination of Mar’s and Erskine’s inter-

ests. That many of the newly enfranchised of

were still on the roll indicates that, while they were

‘fictitious voters’ in one sense, they were not quite the

‘barons for a day’ Defoe had alleged. Of those given

their charters by Argyll before the election none

appeared but Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, soon

to be appointed to the Scottish customs commission

and thus, we may assume, a recent convert to the

Court.5

¹SRO, Alloa sheriff ct. recs. SC//, Clackmannan electoral

ct. mins. June . ²Mar and Kellie mss GD///, ,

, , Mar to Grange, Jan., Feb., Apr., May ;

GD///, Grange to Mar, Feb. . ³Alloa sheriff ct.

recs. SC//, electoral ct. mins. June ; Mar and Kellie

mss GD///, George Erskine to Grange, Mar. [];

J. Wallace, Sheriffdom of Clackmannan, –, –; Add. ,

ff. –; SRO, Stair mss GD/, Mar to Stair, June .

⁴Lincs. AO, Yarborough mss //, Defoe to [Ld. Godolphin

(Sidney†)], June ; Edinburgh Courant, –, – June

; SRO, Montrose mss GD///–, ‘Brief Acct.

Elections in N. Britain’ []; Add. , f. ; , ff. –,

; Mar and Kellie mss, GD///–, Mar to Sir David

Dalrymple, Oct. , Sir David Dalrymple to Mar, Oct. ;

GD//, Alexander Rait to Mar, Feb. . ⁵NLS, ms

, ff. –; , f. ; Alloa sheriff ct. recs. SC//, electo-

ral ct. mins. Sept. ; SRO, Morton mss GD//, Hon.

George Douglas* to Morton, Oct. ; P. W. J. Riley, Eng.

Ministers and Scotland, . D. W. H.

CROMARTYSHIRE

Alternated with Nairnshire

Number of voters: five in –

Nov. H. S K M, Bt.

The county of Cromarty was contiguous with the

barony, which had been purchased by the Mackenzies of

Tarbat in , and enlarged subsequently by the

incorporation of the barony of Tarbat and of other

lands belonging to Viscount Tarbat, scattered in eight

separate parcels across the neighbouring shire of Ross.

Despite these additions, Cromartyshire remained

among the very smallest of Scottish counties: only five

freeholders voted in the last elections to the Scottish

parliament. Political power went with possession of the

barony, and was exercised by Tarbat (raised in to

the earldom of Cromarty) through his second son

Kenneth, infeft in the barony himself and returned as a

commissioner to the Union parliament in September

. Aeneas Macleod of Cadboll, one of Cromarty’s

agents and a freeholder in his own right, belatedly

assumed the other commissionership in March .

The other three voters were Hugh Rose I* of Kilravock

in Nairnshire, a ‘Revolution interest’ Whig who was

drawn over to support the Mackenzie interest in Ross-

shire in – but at other times was unsympathetic,

and two members of the Urquhart family to whom the

barony had previously belonged and who seem to have

been amenable to Mackenzie influence despite a family

connexion with another local Whig, Sir William

Gordon, st Bt.*. In any case Sir Kenneth Mackenzie

would always have been able to create sufficient new

barons to maintain control; not to mention the capacity

for interference his father possessed as hereditary sheriff

of the county. The effect of the Union, which paired

Cromartyshire with Nairnshire, weakened the position

of the Mackenzies in general by making it necessary for

Sir Kenneth to look elsewhere for a seat at every other

general election, but their interest in Cromartyshire

itself remained impregnable, and no opponent

appeared in the only election which occurred in this

period. Although the family entered upon a rapid

decline after the death of the st Earl of Cromarty in

, this was not immediately evident in the constitu-

ency. In the general election the following year the son

of Rose of Kilravock, Hugh II*, failed to secure elec-

tion through his own efforts, whereas Alexander

Urquhart of Newhall applied for the Cromarty interest

and was duly returned.1

¹Ferguson thesis, –; Cromartie Corresp. ii. , –;

SRO, Cromarty sheriff ct. recs. SC///, , electoral ct. mins.

[ Mar.] , Sept. ; Culloden Pprs. , .D. W. H.

DUMFRIESSHIRE

Number of voters: in

June J J, Ld. Johnston

William Grierson

Apr. W G, vice Johnston,

the eldest son of a peer of Scotland

Nov. W G

Hon. James Murray

H. J M vice

Grierson, on petition, Feb.

Sept. S W J, Bt.

Hon. James Murray

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Burrell, Wilts., sis. of Joseph Ashe*; bro. of WilliamDuckett†. educ. Trinity, Oxf. ; M. Temple . m.settlement Mar. (with £,), Grace (d. ),da. and h. of Thomas Skinner of Dewlish, s. ( d.v.p.)da. ( d.v.p.). suc. fa. .2

Commr. excise –d.

Duckett’s family had been established in Wiltshiresince the th century. As lord of the manor of Calne,the youthful Duckett was thus assured of a seat therewhen he came of age in . He stood as a Whig,despite a sharp contest which created ‘a great tumult’in the town. Though marked as a ‘Churchman’ in oneanalysis of the new Parliament, his return wasaccounted a ‘gain’ for the Whigs by Lord Sunderland(Charles, Lord Spencer*), and he voted on Oct. for the Court candidate in the division on theSpeaker. It would appear that Defoe had recom-mended him to the ministry for appointment to somelocal office (as a means of dealing a blow to the Toryinterest in Wiltshire) but unavailingly: at least nothinghad been done by May , when Defoe complainedto Robert Harley* about it.3

Duckett spoke on the proceedings against CharlesCaesar* on Dec. , probably in favour of theHouse taking action against Caesar for his remarksduring the debate on the regency bill, and wasrecorded as having voted on the Court side in the pro-ceedings on the ‘place clause’ of the bill on Feb.. His only other action of note occurred on Mar.when he reported from the committee examining apetition exposing abuses in the administration of theFleet prison. In the next session he acted as teller on Dec. for receiving a petition from the six clerksin Chancery, and presented a highway bill relating toCalne which failed to reach the statute book (Duckettowned the mortgage of the turnpike at Calne). He wasmore active in the – session. He reintroducedthe Calne highway bill and this time piloted it throughthe House. He was also named to draft a bill to end theembargo on the export of white woollen cloth, ameasure of interest to his constituents. He acted as ateller on four occasions: for adjourning debate on thereport of the committee investigating the publicationof An Argument Proving that . . . Man May BeTranslated into . . . Eternal Life, without Passingthrough Death . . ., written by his friend John Asgill*( Dec.); again for the adjournment of a later debateon the book ( Dec.), in an unsuccessful attempt toprevent Asgill’s expulsion from the House; on Dec., with Robert Walpole II, on an additional clauseoffered to the land tax bill; and on Feb. , on anadjournment motion to put off consideration of aprivate bill in favour of Francis Annesley*. He was

listed as a Whig in an analysis of the House in early.4

Returned again at Calne after another contest in, Duckett successfully prosecuted in March a complaint of breach of privilege against an agent ofthe former Tory MP Sir George Hungerford, fordelivering ‘declarations in ejectment’ to his tenants atCalne, though he was unable to secure the inclusion inthe complaint of Hungerford himself. He voted for thenaturalization of the Palatines in , and for theimpeachment of Dr Sacheverell in . He contestedCalne once more as a Whig in the election, whichcost him at least £ in legal fees. This time, however,there was a double return, and the Tory majority inthe new House decided against him and his Whigpartner.5

Out of Parliament, Duckett retired to the country tolive with his father-in-law in Dorset. As a minorpamphleteer and satirist, he had become a familiarfigure in Whig literary circles. He was a close friend ofthe poet Edmund Smith, and a regular correspondentand collaborator of Thomas Burnet, and was thus onthe fringes of the coterie presided over by JosephAddison*. To Tories, on the other hand, he was littlemore than a ‘rattle-pate’. He devoted his time to hisbooks and to composing occasional pieces of politicalsatire in the Whig cause. These were written, accord-ing to his friend Burnet, ‘not . . . to turn a penny but toenlighten the darkened part of the British nation’.They included an answer to Swift’s Windsor Prophecy,‘A Prophecy of Merlin’s’, printed in the ProtestantPost Boy in May ; a squib on the so-called ‘Band-Box Plot’, ‘A Great Plot . . . or, Mine Ar[s]e in a Ban-Box’, published in the Flying Post in the followingNovember; possibly a ballad on the same theme; DrD[avena]nt’s Prophecys (December ), in which heskilfully applied against the present Tory ministryarguments drawn from the early writings of CharlesDavenant*; The Plotter Found Out . . . (after Nov.); and John Bull’s Last Will and Testament, in, an attack on the peace, and on the ministers’ sup-posed Jacobitism, in which he displayed a particularconcern with the likely damage which the terms wouldinflict upon the woollen manufactures, a staple indus-try of his own borough of Calne. There were alsoother projects which never reached print, including a‘History’ which Burnet felt ran the risk of a libel pros-ecution. He freely gave advice and historical examplesto Burnet, who confessed, ‘I would not have anythingof mine come out without a dash or two of honestGeorge’s pen’. Whether or not Duckett wrote formoney, there is evidence that his finances were undersome strain after : his lease of Hartham and

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diary (, Sept., Nov. ); , Harley to Abigail Harley,

Apr., , May, July, Aug. ; HHH, f. ;

Kreienberg despatch Mar. ; Boyer, Pol. State, vii. ;

Gregg, ; Orig. Pprs. ed. Macpherson, ii. . 9 Turberville, i.

–; Swift Corresp. ed. Williams, ii. ; iii. ; v. , –,

; HMC Portland, v. ; PCC Spurway.D. W. H.

HARLEY, Robert (–), of Brampton Bryan,

Herefs.1

T Apr. –

N R B Nov. – May

b. Dec. , st s. of Sir Edward Harley* by his nd w.;

bro. of Edward*. educ. Shilton, Oxon. (Mr Birch),

–; Sherwood Street Academy, London (M.

Foubert), –; M. Temple . m. () May ,

Elizabeth (d. Nov. ), da. of Thomas Foley I* of

Witley Court, Worcs., sis. of Edward Foley*, Richard

Foley* and Thomas Foley III*, s. ( d.v.p.) da.; ()

Oct. , Sarah, da. of Simon Middleton of Edmonton,

Mdx., s.p. suc. fa. ; cr. Earl of Oxford May ;

KG Oct. .2

Sheriff, Herefs. Mar.–Nov. ; freeman, New

Radnor , Ludlow ; steward of crown manors,

Rad. –; custos rot. Rad. –; warden,

Sherwood Forest –.3

Commr. public accts. –; sec. of state (north)

–; PC Apr. –May , Aug. –Sept.

; commr. union with Scotland ; chancellor of

the Exchequer –; ld. treasurer –; house-

keeper, St. James’s Palace May–July .4

Commr. Greenwich Hosp. , Q. Anne’s Bounty

; gov. Charterhouse by .5

Speaker of the House of Commons Feb. –

Apr. .

Gov. S. Sea Co. –.6

FRS .

Not only was Harley the most important parliamen-

tarian of his day; he remains the most extensively doc-

umented. An inveterate hoarder, he left behind a vast

archive of letters, notes, memoranda, drafts, memoirs,

petitions and assorted official papers. Yet despite this

wealth of documentation, there is much about him

that we do not know, and may never know. Devious

and secretive, Harley was a man whose motives and

intentions were often a puzzle to his contemporaries; a

political wizard and master of ‘schemes’, in his latter

years he was given such popular nicknames as

‘Harlequin’, ‘the dragon’, or, most familiarly, ‘Robin

the trickster’. The air of mystery which surrounded

him was in part a natural emanation of his serpentine

intelligence and love of intrigue. It also reflected the

many paradoxes of his life and career: the moral

schemer; the Presbyterian who became a pillar of the

Church of England; the simple country squire who

revived for himself an ancient peerage title, and

gloried in marrying his children into the nobility; the

upright public servant who protected the corrupt; the

self-righteous puritan who took to drink; the uxorious

husband accused of keeping mistresses; the devotee of

‘Country’ principles who became an archetypal cour-

tier; and the ‘moderate’ man, hating the ‘violence’ of

parties, who presided over one of the most partisan

administrations of this period.7

Harley grew up in a household dominated by his

father, and pervaded by the heavy atmosphere of

Puritan religiosity. Sir Edward instilled into his chil-

dren not only the principle that politics was a moral

duty, a means of ‘doing good in one’s own generation’,

as the Presbyterian divines had it, but also a proud

belief that the Harleys themselves boasted a pedigree

of virtuous public service, disdaining pecuniary

rewards in obeying the dictates of conscience. Self-

examination featured often in correspondence

between the brothers and sisters, and especially in

letters to their father, before whom the young Robert

was often called to cast up the equivalent of a moral

balance sheet, to demonstrate the probity of his

conduct. This practice may well have prepared the

way for the development in later life of a habit of cal-

culation which resulted in the production of innumer-

able notes and aides-mémoire on political and

parliamentary strategy.8

It would take many years for Harley to free himself

from his father’s influence; indeed, in some respects he

never did. Religious meditations were as much a

feature of his last years as they had been of his early

life. The Scottish Presbyterian Robert Wodrow was

certainly convinced of his piety: ‘it is said, sometimes

he takes a bottle, but otherwise he is moral, and never

fails to pray with his family at night, and be it never so

late ere he come in on post nights, yet still they must all

wait till prayers’. On the other side, the journalist

George Ridpath was convinced that such ostentatious

Puritanism was a sham. He assured Wodrow that

Harley

was, even when a boy at the schools, observed to be tricky

and cunning to a degree. He . . . is a person who makes a

stalking horse of his religion, and consequently [is] an

atheist. He [Ridpath] has it from a minister to whom he

[Harley] let his diary be seen, and he did so, he hears, to

others. It contains an account of his conversion, etc., and

this he discovers to not a few.

Increasingly, the tone of seriousness and earnestness

found in Harley’s letters to Sir Edward and to other

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• Makes available the complete set ofprinted volumes with corrections and additions

• All fully indexed and searchable

• Electronic access to a major work ofhistorical scholarship

SPECIAL OFFERS

Printed volumes: £250 introductory rate (retail price £300)

The History of Parliament on CD-ROM: £425 + VAT (retail price £525 + VAT), please see next page for details

Offer until31 October2002

ALSO

AVAILABLE

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge June 2002

Please order from your local bookseller