-------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Harley,_1st_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Earl_Mortimer
<<Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, KG PC FRS (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724) was an English and later British statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory Ministry. He was raised to the peerage of Great Britain as an earl in 1711. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as Lord High Treasurer, effectively Queen Anne's chief minister. He has been called a Prime Minister, although it is generally accepted that the de facto first minister to be a prime minister was Robert Walpole in 1721.
The central achievement of Harley's government was the negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht with France in 1713, which brought an end to twelve years of English and Scottish involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1714 Harley fell from favour following the accession of the first monarch of the House of Hanover, George I, and was for a time imprisoned in the Tower of London by his political enemies.
He was also a noted literary figure and served as a patron of both the October Club and the Scriblerus Club.
Harley was born in Bow Street, London, in 1661, the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley, a prominent landowner in Herefordshire and his wife Abigail Stephens and the grandson of Sir Robert Harley and his third wife, the celebrated letter-writer Brilliana, Lady Harley. He was educated at Shilton, near Burford, in Oxfordshire, in a small school which produced at the same time a Lord High Treasurer (Harley himself), a Lord High Chancellor (Lord Harcourt) and a Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (Lord Trevor). Harley then spent some time at Foubert's Academy, but disliked it. He entered the Inner Temple on 18 March 1682, but was never called to the bar.
The principles of Whiggism and Nonconformism were taught him at an early age, and he never formally abandoned his family's religious opinions, although he departed from them in politics. His father was wrongly imprisoned for suspected support for the 1685 Monmouth rebellion. Harley wrote afterwards that "we are not a little rejoiced" at Monmouth's defeat.
During 1688 Harley acted as his father's agent in promoting support for William, Prince of Orange and the Protestant cause against the policies of James II. When William landed in England on 5 November, Sir Edward Harley and his son immediately raised a troop of horse in support of the cause of William III, and took possession of the city of Worcester on his behalf. Harley was sent to report to William, meeting him at Henley. Harley obtained a commission as a major of militia foot in Herefordshire, which he held for several years.
Harley's importance to literature cannot be overstated. As a patron of the arts, he was notable. As a preservationist, he was invaluable. He used his wealth and power to collect an unparalleled library. He commissioned the creation of ballad collections, such as The Bagford Ballads, and he purchased loose poems from all corners. He preserved Renaissance literature (particularly poetry), Anglo-Saxon literature that was then incomprehensible, and a great deal of Middle English literature. His collection, with that of his son Edward, 2nd Lord Oxford and Mortimer, was sold to Parliament in 1753 for the British Museum by the Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer and her daughter, the Duchess of Portland; it is known as the Harley Collection.
When he was in office, Harley promoted the careers of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay. He also wrote with them as a member of the Scriblerus Club. He, along with The 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, contributed to the literary productions of the Club. His particular talent lay in poetry, and some of his work (always unsigned) has been preserved and may be found among editions of Swift's poetry. Additionally, he likely had some hand in the writing of The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, though it is impossible to tell how much.
In the opinion of the historian David C. Douglas, in Harley's time "the whole company of scholars looked up to Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, as the great Maecenas of English medieval learning, and they were right to do so, for he was the correspondent and benefactor of very many of them, and he deserved their gratitude as surely as he earned through his book-collecting the thanks of posterity".
In May 1685 Harley married as his first wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Thomas Foley, and they had four children before she died in November 1691: They were the sixth great-grandparents of Queen Elizabeth II via her mother, the Queen Mother Elizabeth and their eldest son, Edward. After Elizabeth's death, Harley married Sarah (died 17 June 1737), daughter of Simon Middleton of Edmonton, London, on 18 September 1694. They had no children. He died in 1724 at his house in Albemarle Street, Westminster, and was buried in the churchyard of St Barnabas, Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Harley,_2nd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Earl_Mortimer
<<Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (2 June 1689 – 16 June 1741), styled Lord Harley between 1711 and 1724, was a British politician, bibliophile, collector and patron of the arts. Harley was the only son of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, by his first wife Elizabeth Foley.
He was MP for Radnor (as his father and paternal grandfather had been before him) from 1711 to 1714, and for Cambridgeshire from 1722 until he succeeded his father in 1724 and entered the House of Lords. He was a bibliophile, collector and patron of the arts, and took little interest in public affairs. Harley's considerable collection of coins and medals – 520 lots in all - was auctioned by Christopher Cock at his house in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden over six days, from 18 March 1742. He extended his father's library and expanded the Harleian Collection, now in the British Library.
Through his wife, he inherited Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire, and Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire. Wimpole became their main residence, but they had to sell it in 1740 to pay Edward's debts. He also acquired a considerable amount of land in the West End of London which was developed during his life. Many of the now famous streets took their names from Harley connections – primarily Harley Street and Oxford Street. Other streets, named after Harley properties, include Wigmore Street and Wimpole Street.
On 31 August 1713 he married Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles (1694–1755), only daughter and heir of the 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Cavendish, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They were the fifth great grandparents to Queen Elizabeth II, via their daughter Margaret.
Lord Oxford and Mortimer died in London in 1741 and was buried in the vault of the Duke of Newcastle in Westminster Abbey. He was succeeded in the earldom by his cousin Edward Harley, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Harley,_Countess_of_Oxford_and_Countess_Mortimer
Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer (née Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles; 11 February 1694 – 9 December 1755) was an English noblewoman, the only child and heiress of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Cavendish, daughter of Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Her hand was sought in marriage even in her youth as a means of alliance with her powerful father. Suitors included the Intendant of the Court of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in December 1703, the Elector of Hanover's son (later George I of Great Britain) in June 1706, the Duke of Somerset's son Lord Hertford in 1707–1711, Count Nassau in 1709, and finally Lord Danby (grandson of Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds) in 1711, before her father settled on Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. They were married on 31 August 1713, at Wimpole Hall. She brought, through inheritance, Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire and Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire to her husband.
Their only child to attain maturity was Margaret (1715–1785), and so whilst Margaret inherited most of the combined Holles-Harley fortunes on her parents' deaths, the title of Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer passed to Edward's cousin (also Edward).
Henrietta Place (previously Henrietta Street) in Marylebone in the City of Westminster in central London was named after the Countess. Nearby Harley Street was named after her husband. The general area was owned by the Harleys and developed during their lifetimes, hence other streets are named after their family, too. This includes Oxford Street, Wigmore Street and Wimpole Street.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer