He was the son of Thomas Harley of
Brampton Bryan Castle in
Herefordshire and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir
Andrew Corbet. He entered
Oriel College, Oxford in 1595, earning a BA in 1599. He entered
Middle Temple in 1599. He was invested as a
Knight of the Bath on 25 July 1603. He was an active member of that party both in Parliament and in Herefordshire,
Brampton Bryan Castle undergoing siege in 1643 and 1644. On 30 September 1642, Parliamentarians led by Harley and
Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford occupied
Hereford without opposition. In December, they withdrew to
Gloucester because of the presence in the area of a
Royalist army under
Lord Herbert. His support for reconciliation with the king led to his being excluded from the
House of Commons in
Pride's Purge. He and his son
Edward, a colonel in the Parliamentarian army, were imprisoned until after the king's execution. He resigned as
Master of the Mint in May 1649 and took no further part in politics. He left several sons, his heir
Edward being the father of
Queen Anne's
Lord Treasurer,
Robert Harley, who was raised to the peerage as the
Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. ==References==