wearing of the surplice (Journals of House of Commons, 30 Sept. 1643), and with two thers formed a committee (ib. 24 April 1643) to receive information as to idolatrous monuolents in Westminster Abbey and the London churches, with 'power to demolish the same.' On 23 April 1644 he was ordered to sell the mitre and crosier-staff found in St. Paul's, London, and the brass and iron in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster. 'The zealous knight took down the cross in Cheapside, Charing Cross, and other the like monuments impartially.' (As to the dates, see Lewis, Letters of Lady B. Harley, p. xliv.) Harley on 15 Dec. 1643 succeeded Pym on the committee of the assembly of divines. He was active in the proceedings against Strafford, and in Scotch and Irish affairs. He lent plate and money to the parliament (ib. p. 262), and organised the militia. He was, however, one of the members imprisoned on 6 Dec. 1 648 for voting to treat with the king. Harley's castle of Brampton Bryan was besieged (during his absence) for six weeks, from 25 July 1643, and was successfully defended by his wife Brilliana [see Harley, Lady Brilliana], who died in October 1643. On 17 April 1644 the castle was surrendered by Harley's servants, after a second siege (of three weeks), to Sir Michael Woodhouse. Three of Harley's younger children and sixty-seven men, as well as a hundred arms, two barrels of powder, and a year's provisions, were taken in the castle, which was burnt, as was also Harley's castle at Wigmore. In July 1646 Harley's losses during the wars were estimated at 12,990l. 'A study of books,' valued at 200l., and furniture, &c., valued at 2,500l., perished in Brampton Bryan Castle. Harley's two parks and warren had been laid waste, and five hundred deer destroyed. Till May 1646 his estate was 'under the power of the king's soldiers.' Harley did not rebuild the castle, but built a new church (finished two days before he died) to replace one that had been burnt at Brampton Bryan. He was confined to his room by illness for some years before his death, which took place at Brampton Bryan from stone and gout, on 6 Nov. 1656. He was buried with his ancestors at Brampton Bryan. His kinsman, Thomas Froysell, minister of the gospel at Clun in Shropshire, in the funeral sermon preached at Brampton Bryan on 10 Dec. 1656 ('The Beloved Disciple,' London, 1658, 12mo), describes Harley as 'a great light' in religion to the neighbourhood, who maintained ministers 'upon his own cost' at Brampton Bryan, Wigmore, and Leyntwardine. Harley was also a patron of Timothy Woodroffe (tutor to Hobbes of Malmesbury), who wrote for his use in old age a 'Treatise on Simeon's Song; or Instructions advertising how to live holily and dye happily' (afterwards published, London, 1659). Harley (Froysell, op. cit.) was 'earnest for presbytery,' a man of pure life, and devoted to religious observances. 'He wept much when his servants suffered him to sleep on the Lord's day later than he used, although he had not rested all that night.' The Ember days and the monthly parliamentary fasts were strictly observed at Brampton Castle. Harley married, first, Anne, daughter of Charles Barret of Belhouse in Aveley, Essex, by whom he had a son who died young; secondly, Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Newport of High Ercall, Shropshire, by whom he had a son John, and eight children who died young; thirdly, on 22 July 1623, Brilliana, second daughter of Edward, Viscount Conway [see Conway, Edward, and Harley, Brilliana, Lady]. By his third wife he had three sons: Sir Edward Harley (1624-1700) [q. v.], governor of Dunkirk ; Sir Robert Harley, knt.,born in 1626, died without issue in 1673; Thomas Harley, baptised on 13 Jan. 1627-8; and four daughters, Brilliana, Dorothy, Margaret, and Elizabeth (on a supposed fourth marriage of Harley, cp. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iii. 129). Harley's name is sometimes spelt 'Harlow' or 'Harlowe.'
[Cal. of State Papers, Dom., from 1603 onwards, as above; Collins's Peerage, iv. 55 ff.; Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, i. 18, 35, 72, 383, 399, 400, 404, 408, 409; Froysell's Beloved Disciple; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iii. 310; and especially the introduction to Mr. T. L. Lewis's Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley (Camd. Soc. 1854), where further authorities are cited.]
HARLEY, ROBERT, first Earl of Oxford (1661–1724), the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley, K.B., by his second wife, Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel Stephens of Easington, Gloucestershire, was born in Bow Street, Covent Garden, on 5 Dec. 1661, and was educated at a private school kept by Mr. Birch at Shilton, near Burford, Oxfordshire, where Simon Harcourt, first viscount [q. v.] (afterwards lord chancellor), and Thomas Trevor (afterwards lord chief justice of the common pleas) were among his contemporaries. It is frequently stated that Harley was also educated at Westminster School, but of this there is no satisfactory proof, as the admissions of that date are no longer in existence. Harley was admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 18 March 1682, but was never called to the bar. At the revolution he assisted his father in raising a troop of horse and in taking possession of Worcester
