| Authorised form of name | Harley; Robert (1661 - 1724); 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer |
| Dates | 1661 - 1724 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Bow street, Covent Garden, London, England |
| Date of birth | 05 December 1661 |
| Place of death | His house in Albemarle Street, London |
| Date of death | 21 May 1724 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire |
| Activity | Education:
Private school at Shilton, near Burford, Oxfordshire; Middle Temple (admitted 1682)
Career:
Assisted his father in raising a troop of horse for the Glorious Revolution and seizing Worcester (1688); Sheriff of Herefordshire (1689); Major in the Herefordshire Militia (1696); MP for Tregony (1689-1690), Radnor (1690-1711); Commissioner for Public Accounts (1690-1697); Steward of Molynedd and other royal manors in Radnorshire (1691); Speaker of the House of Commons (1701-1705); Privy Councillor (1704-1708, 1710-1714); Secretary of State for the North (1704-1708); Commissioner for the Union of England and Scotland (1706); Chancellor of the Exchequer (1710-1711); stabbed by Antoine de Guiscard (FRS 1706) during an interrogation, but survived (1711); Lord High Treasurer (1711-1714); Governor of the South Sea Company (1711-1714); Steward of Sherwood Forest (1711-1714); imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of high treason (1715), acquitted (1717) but continued to keep in touch with the Jacobite party
Honours:
Baron Harley of Wigmore, Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer 1711; KG 1712 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/03/1712 |
| Relationships | Son of Sir Edward Harley, KB, of Brampton Castle, Herfordshire (FRS 1663), and his second wife, Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel Stephens of Eastington, Gloucestershire; nephew of Sir Robert Harley (FRS 1661) and of Thomas Harley (FRS 1667).
Married: 1) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Foley of Witley Court, Worcestershire, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Ashe of Heytesbury, Wiltshire; 2) Sarah, daughter of Simon Middleton of Edmonton, Middlesex, and his wife, Mary, daughter of John Soame of Burnham Market, Norfolk; father of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (FRS 1727); brother-in-law of Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley of Kidderminster (FRS 1696) and of Richard Foley (FRS 1708); father-in-law of George Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull (FRS 1712) |
| OtherInfo | The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of the national debt. To generate income, in 1713 the company was granted a monopoly (the Asiento) to supply enslaved Africans to the islands in the 'South Seas' and South America. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, and peaked in 1720 before suddenly collapsing to little above its original flotation price. The notorious economic bubble thus created, which ruined thousands of investors, became known as the South Sea Bubble. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; GEC; MT |
| Code | NA7384 |