Motto.—Virtvte et fide.
Legend.—Robert Harley.
[The Annals of King James and King Charles the First. London, 1681.]
Robert Harley (born 5th December 1661, died 21st May 1724) was the son of Sir Edward Harley of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire. Robert Harley was Member of Parliament for Tregony, and afterwards for New Radnor, and was distinguished for his knowledge of finance. In 1701 he became Speaker of the House of Commons, and had a considerable share in the passing of the Act for the Protestant succession to the Throne of England.
In 1704, Mr. Speaker Harley became a Member of the Privy Council, and also was made one of the Principal Secretaries of State. Owing to various jealousies and plots against him, Harley resigned office in 1707. In 1710 he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer; in 1711 he was nearly assassinated by Antoine de Guiscard, a French adventurer, and his escape increased his popularity, and he was created Earl of Oxford, and Lord High Treasurer, an office he held until 1714.
In 1715 Lord Oxford was impeached for betrayal of duty and other matters, twenty-two articles in all, and in 1717 he was acquitted after a long trial.
Through all his many political troubles, Harley continued the collection of manuscripts, which was his dearest hobby. He brought together many of the most famous collections, among them those of Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Symonds D'Ewes, and the Earl of Stamford. In the Harleian Library were about six thousand volumes of manuscripts, as well as about fifteen thousand separate rolls and charters, and this collection was largely added to by the second Earl. The entire collection was purchased by Parliament in 1753, and is now in the British Museum. The printed books were dispersed.
Many of the Harleian books were bound, generally in red morocco, by Thomas Eliot and Christopher Chapman, with broad, gold-tooled borderings, and this style is known as the "Harleian." Several of Lord Oxford's favourite books have a facsimile signature "Robert Harley," impressed inside on the paper in gold. A member of the Harley family always holds one of the six family trusteeships of the British Museum.
