HARVEY, John (1582-1645), of Paternoster Row, London and Westminster.

Harvey belonged to the most eminent generation of a minor Folkestone family. Three younger brothers were wealthy and powerful merchants, while his elder brother, Dr William Harvey, was one of the seventeenth century’s greatest scientists, who served as court physician and discovered the circulation of blood.13Vis. London, i. 359; ‘William Harvey’, Oxford DNB. John Harvey became attached to the worlds of both of commerce and of the Jacobean court, as well as to prominent courtiers, perhaps as a result of the influence of his brother’s patron, James Stuart, 4th duke of Lennox.

Sometime before February 1622, Harvey appears to have been sent on a diplomatic mission to Europe, from where he sent news.14SP78/70, f. 38; CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 342. It is not clear how long he remained on the continent, but he had returned to England by early March 1625, when, alongside his brother William, he was granted special admission to Gray’s Inn, in his capacity as serjeant in ordinary to King James.15G. Inn Admiss. 175. Shortly before the king’s death Harvey sought to secure the patronage of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, proffering a specific proposal regarding a lighthouse for the Goodwin Sands, and aspiring to become one of the duke’s servants.16CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 487. It may have been through Buckingham’s influence, therefore, that, in the last days of James’ reign, Harvey was granted (with his brother Daniel) the position of receiver of crown lands in Lincolnshire.17CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 499. This commission was renewed by the new king, and Harvey effectively held the position for the rest of his life.18CSP Dom. 1625-49, pp. 462, 568; E134/8&9Chasl/Hil23; E214/1093. On 29 April 1626 Harvey, styled one of the king’s servants, was granted a pass to go to France and ‘speedily to return’, probably on official business.19APC 1625-6, p. 451. Harvey may also have become a lessee of duties on wines.20CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 34.

During the 1630s Harvey was embroiled in protracted financial negotiations with the Corporation of London, in relation to the will of his brother Thomas Harvey (d.1623), a London merchant to whom he was executor. A dispute arose over the delayed payment of a £2,000 bequest to Harvey’s nephew, and in relation to allegations of financial mismanagement and inadequate book-keeping by Thomas Harvey’s brothers and business partners, Daniel and Eliab, whom John appears to have served as agent.21PROB11/141/153. In May 1629 Harvey was summoned to appear before the Court of Aldermen to respond to the accusation of his nephew, and it was reported that there was no accurate inventory of the estate, and that Harvey’s accounts were compiled ‘in an obscure and dark manner’.22CLRO, Rep. 43, ff. 163v-4, 175-78v. After a series of reports and prolonged delays, Harvey was ordered to pay the £2,000, which was undertaken by October 1638.23CLRO, Rep. 49, ff. 53; Rep. 51, ff. 180, 316-19v; Rep. 52, ff. 14v-16, 277.

Harvey was probably the ‘Mr Harvey’ who stood unsuccessfully for election at New Romney in the spring of 1640, and given his court connections, he may have been the candidate proposed by the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, Theophilus Howard†, 2nd earl of Suffolk.24E. Kent RO, NR/Aep/3/1; NR/AC2, p. 265. He was more successful in the autumn elections at Hythe, when he appears to have received the recommendation of his old patron, Lennox, who had succeeded Suffolk as lord warden.25E. Kent RO, H1209, f. 240. Harvey made only a slight impression on the proceedings of the Commons before the outbreak of civil war. He was recorded as having taken the Protestation in May 1641, and the covenant in June 1643, but the only other evidence of his activity during this period concerned his willingness to lend £500 for the purchase of shoes for troops fighting the Irish rebels, and his being mentioned as one of the creditors of the customs farmer, Abraham Dawes.26CJ ii. 133a, 521a; iii. 118a; PJ ii. 151; iii. 245.

As the civil war progressed, and as Westminster attempted to secure control of royal finances, Harvey’s position as a receiver of crown lands made his allegiance vital to Parliament. When in September 1643 the Commons sought to establish whether he and other receivers like Robert Scawen* would continue to perform their duties under Parliament, Harvey indicated his willingness to take directions from the Committee for Revenue.27CJ iii. 253a, 264b, 283b, 336b. Once this was established, it was possible for Harvey to be assessed by the Committee at Haberdashers’ Hall.28CJ iii. 390b. Initially rated at £500 in November 1643, Harvey’s assessment was reduced upon appeal to £300 in February 1644.29CCAM 301, 341. In granting the reversion of his receivership to his nephew that January, the king had implicitly indicated that he regarded Harvey as still in post, but by October it emerged that Charles had seized Harvey’s estate as a result of the order by the Committee of Both Kingdoms* that the latter should not pay to the crown the money owing as a customs farmer. This placed him in financial difficulties, which Sir Arthur Hesilrige* tried to alleviate.30Docquets of Letters Patent ed. Black, 373; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 34.

Once such financial matters were settled, Harvey emerged as a more zealous servant of his constituents and a more active member of the Commons. He had sent them news in May 1643, along with updates of his part in the town’s dealings with the royalist financier Sir Peter Rycaut, but during 1644 his letters appear to have become more frequent, as he searched records in relation to the corporation’s land transactions, and as he undertook to expedite their efforts to remove a clergyman, Stephen Sackett, from the parish of West Hythe. It may have been in connection with the latter that in August 1644 Harvey lobbied the chairmen of the Committee for Examinations, Miles Corbet* and Laurence Whitaker*.31E. Kent RO, H1257, unfol.; Al. Cant. Meanwhile, in reflection of his financial expertise, between April 1644 and 5 June 1645 he was named to three committees related to attempts to raise money for the army.32CJ iii. 457a; iv. 52a, 164a.

Harvey died unmarried some time between 26 June 1645, when his will was drafted, and 28 July, when it was proved. He left £100 for a somewhat less than modest funeral, but also left money to the poor of Folkestone and Newington, near Hythe, and to the wife of his eminent brother, Dr Harvey. His sole executor was Harbottle Grimston*, who in the months that followed oversaw the terms of the will, including payments to the borough of Hythe.33PROB11/193/454; E. Kent RO, H1257, unfol. Harvey was eventually replaced as MP for Hythe by a prominent local radical, Thomas Westrowe*.34CJ iv. 249b; C231/6, p. 16. His nephews Daniel Harvey†, Eliab Harvey† and Michael Harvey† sat in Parliament after the Restoration.35HP Commons 1660-1690.