Constituency Dates
Berkshire 21 Feb. 1776 – 1784, 1790 – 12 Aug. 1794
Family and Education
b. 20 May 1740,1MIs St. Anne’s, Soho ed. Hughes, 52. 2nd s. of David Hartley, physician and philosopher, of Bath, Som. by 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Robert Packer of Shellingford and Donnington, Berks. by Mary, da. and coh. of Sir Henry Winchcombe, 2nd Bt., of Bucklebury. educ. L. Inn 1756; Christ Church, Oxf. 1757. m. ?(1) Harriet;2According to Hartley-Russell mss (Brks. RO D/EHy). (2) 30 Aug. 1777, Mary Jenkinson, wid. of St. Anne’s, Soho (d. 15 Apr. 1786),3St. Anne’s par. reg.; MI in A. L. Humphreys, Bucklebury, 176. s.p.; (3) 25 Aug. 1787,4Gent. Mag. (1787), ii. 836. Anne, da. of Samuel Blackwell of Williamstrip Park, Glos., 1s. suc. uncle Henry John Packer to Bucklebury estates 1746.
Offices Held

Lt.-col. N. Glos. militia 1793 – 94.

Address
Main residences: Bucklebury, Berks.; Little Sodbury, Glos.
biography text

Hartley, who joined the Whig Club shortly after his defeat at the polls in 1784, regained the Berkshire seat in 1790, when he was returned unopposed on the interest dominated by Lord Craven. A ministerial newspaper trusted that he had ‘read his recantation of the errors of the Blue and Buff party’,5Public Advertiser, 2 July 1790. but initially he continued in opposition, condemning the war against Tipu, 2 Mar., and the armament against Spain, 28 Mar. 1791, and voting against government on the Oczakov question, 12 Apr. 1791 and 1 Mar. 1792. He was also listed a supporter of repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in 1791.

In response to events in France, however, Hartley, who stated his hostility to parliamentary reform, 30 Apr. 1792, took an alarmist line. On the address, 13 Dec. 1792, he voted with ministers, after making a declaration of general confidence in them, which he repeated when supporting the aliens bill, 31 Dec. 1792, with the rider that they would be expected to justify the measure once the crisis was over. Listed among Members ‘supposed attached’ to Portland at the end of 1792, he was deleted from Windham’s provisional list of potential recruits for the ‘third party’, but attended their meeting of 17 Feb. 1793 by invitation. He made a further pronouncement against reform, 21 Feb. 1793.

By the following June Hartley’s health was in ruins,6Berks. RO, Preston mss, Loveden to Sellwood, 13 June 1793. and he died 12 Aug. 1794.

Author
D.R.F.
Volume
Commons 1790-1820
Notes
  • 1. MIs St. Anne’s, Soho ed. Hughes, 52.
  • 2. According to Hartley-Russell mss (Brks. RO D/EHy).
  • 3. St. Anne’s par. reg.; MI in A. L. Humphreys, Bucklebury, 176.
  • 4. Gent. Mag. (1787), ii. 836.
  • 5. Public Advertiser, 2 July 1790.
  • 6. Berks. RO, Preston mss, Loveden to Sellwood, 13 June 1793.