a 
1805.] 
[ The Counte/s Dowager of Shafte/bury, whofe 
death was mentioned at page 450 of the laff 
volume, was the fecond furviving daughter 
of Jacob Bouverie, Vifcount Folkitone, fitter 
to William Bouverie, late Earl of Radnor, - 
and fecond wife of Anthony, fourth Eart of 
Shaftefbury, married to him March 26, 1759, 
by whom {fhe had two fons, the prefent Earl 
and Cropley Afhley, to whom, by her death, 
a confiderable acceflion of fortune accrues; 
and a daughter, Mary Anne. ] 
[Further particulars of the late Alderman Har- 
ley, whofe death is mentioned at p. 547 of the laf 
Volume. Mr. Harley was born Aucuf 24, 
1750, and was the fourth fon of Edward; the 
third Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. Having 
duly finithed his claflical education at Weft- 
minfter-fchool, he was placed at an early 
age under the care of a refpectable mer- 
chant in the city. Here he acquired the 
firft rudiments of commercial knowledge, 
and, in courte of time, became engaged him- 
felf, for the greater part of his life, in a va- 
Tiety of mercantile concerns, At the gene- 
ral election in 1761 he was feleéted by his 
fellow-citizens as a proper fucceffor to their 
late highly-efteemed reprefentative, Sir John 
Barnard, who then retired from Parliament; 
.and in the fame year he was alfo elected 
alderman for Portloken ward. Tn 1753 he 
was chofen one of the theriffs for the city of 
London and county of Middlefex, and 
being placed in that office, as well as in the 
fill higher and, more refponfible fituation of 
fir! magiftrate of the city, m times of pecu- 
har difficulty, and amid@ the mof tumul- 
uous excefles of popular frenzy, he executed 
both thofe offices with a degree of firmnels, 
dignity, and intrepidity, which preferved 
the metropolis from the fill more alarming 
effects to which it was frequently expofed. 
By thefe unremitted and fuccefsful exer- 
tions he not only moft juftly became entitled 
to the grateful and lafting efteem of his fel- 
low-citizens, but a!lfo to thofe other ftill more 
diftinguifbed marks of public approbation 
with which he was about this time honoured. 
In 1768 he received the thanks of the Honfe 
of Commons for his vigilant and able con-: 
duct during his mayoralty; and was foon 
after, in confideration of thefe public fer- 
Vices, appointed a member of his Majefty’s 
moft honourable Privy Council; an honour 
which had not for feveral centuries paft (in 
no inftance, we believe, fince the time of 
Sir William Walworth) been conferred on 
any of his predeceffors in office. At fhe 
next general election, in 1768, the year of 
his mayoralty, he was again elected to re- 
prefent the city of London, and retained 
that honour till the diffolution of Parlia- 
ment in. 1774, when, in confequence. of 
the folicitations of his friends and family, 
he became a candidate for his native county 
Hereford, to which, a franger to the cold- 
hearted and bafelefs theories of moder 
MONTHLY Mas. No 126, 
Marriages and“Deaths in and néar London. 
151 
philofophy, he uniformly preferved through 
life the warmeft and mot aifectionate at- 
tachment. »Having failed in his fir contet, 
in 1774, he again offered himfelf to the 
county on a vacancy which. happened’ in 
1776, in confequence of Mr, Feley’s.promo- 
tion to the Britifh peerage, afd, after a fe- 
cond fevere and expentive ftruggle, he then 
obtained, by a large majority of votes, this 
favourite object of bis ambition, of which he 
remained in the unditurbed poffeflion for 
five fucceflive parliaments, and during a pe= ' 
riod of.nearly thirty yeafs of his life. In the 
{pring of 1802, a fhort time befcre the gene- 
ral election, and when there remained not a 
fhadow of doubt of his future fuccefs, he 
publicly fignified his intention of refigning 
his feat in parliament, in confequence of 
his advanced age, and daily increafing 
infirmities; and on this occafion he re- 
ceived trom his confituents the mof flat- 
tering teftimony of their high efteem, and of 
their entire approbation of his paft fervices. 
Daring all this period he had continued 
in the vigilant and active difcharge of his 
civic duties in the metropolis, retaining, to 
the time of his death, the office of alderman, 
and having become alfo, on the death of 
Mr, Alfop mm 1785, the fenior or father of 
the city. He had likewife, “for the greater 
part of this time, continued to be actively 
engaged in his mercantile connections, on a 
large and extended feale, holding alfo, for 
fome years, a confiderable contract under 
Government. ‘The ultimate refult of thefe 
undertakings, however, though purfued. for 
many years with great activity both of mind 
and body, together with a competent degree 
of commercial knowledge, proved, certainly, 
lefs favourable to his intereft than might 
have been expected ; for, in the year 1797, 
when the critical and awful fituation of 
public affairs had recently given a fhock to 
public credit, which was not only felt. in an 
unparalleled degree, by the moft refpectabie 
commercial houfes throughout the kmgdom, 
but had been, in fome meafure, commuuui- 
cated even to the Bank of England itfelf; 
at this erifis Mr. Harley determined at once 
fo relinquifh all his commercial concerns. 
The moit liberal and friendly offers of pecu- 
niary aid he had, in the mof difinterefted 
manner, declined: and, having made ‘a 
voluntary affignment of all his real and per- 
fonal property (fhonld all be wanting) for 
the honoutable paymeat of all his partner- 
fhip demands, he had foon the’ heartfelt 
fatisfattion of feeing them all difcharged in 
their fulleft extent, both as to principal and 
intereft. It is unnecefiary to ftate, that, by 
this additional proof of his uprightnefs and 
integrity, he raifed himfelf fill higher than 
ever in the efeem and admiration of iy 
fellow-citizens. Of this a moft flattering 
and unequivocal proof was foon after given 
him in the ftrong folicitations he received 
fea a oe 
Aponte a 
