FOOTNOTES:
[59] Edwards, Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, p. 308.
[60] Memoir of Oldys, etc. London, 1862, p. 76.
ROBERT HARLEY, FIRST EARL OF OXFORD, 1661-1724
AND
EDWARD HARLEY, SECOND EARL OF OXFORD, 1689-1741
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, who was born in Bow Street, Covent Garden, on the 5th of December 1661, was the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley, K.B., who was Governor of Dunkirk after the Restoration. Entering Parliament in 1689, in 1701 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons; in 1710 he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in 1711 he was created Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and made Lord High Treasurer, from which post he was dismissed in 1714. In 1713 he received the Order of the Garter. He was impeached by the House of Commons in 1715; acquitted without being brought to a trial in 1717, and died at his house in Albemarle Street, London, on the 21st of May 1724.
One of the Book-plates of Robert Harley as a Commoner.