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'Sir Edward Harley' (1624-1700) was an English Parliamentarian, born in Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire. Educated at Shrewsbury, Gloucester, and Oxford, he studied law, but took up arms in the Parliamentary cause against the King in 1642, though disapproving of military supremacy in the nation. By 1646 he was a member of Parliament for his native county, but his opposition to Cromwell brought about his banishment from it for 10 years, though he was rewarded at the Restoration by Charles II, who made him Governor of Dunkirk (1660). Despite his changes of front (for he was against the Stuarts once more at the revolution of 1688), Harley was a conscientious upholder of the rights of the people, who showed their appreciation by sending him continuously to Parliament. Though a churchman himself, he fought against any form of persecution of the dissenters, was without party prejudice, and was remembered more for his practical benefactions than for such theoretical performances as ''A Scriptural and Rational Account of the Christian Religion'' (1695).

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