biography text
Richard Harnage, a merchant, was a member of an ancient Shropshire family seated at Belswardine. During the war of the Spanish succession he made a considerable fortune as a government clothing contractor and army agent.2Cal. Treas. Bks. 1689-1709, passim. His interest at Bishop’s Castle was derived from the manors of Norbury and Hardwicke near the borough, which he inherited from his nephew, John Harnage, in 1707.3Salop Par. Reg. Soc. Hereford Dioc. xix. Norbury, i-ii. A Whig, he voted for the septennial bill but did not vote on the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in January 1719, dying in November that year.