Granny Harley’s Family Mythtory
Oxford – Cambridge Boat Race
It was the day of the Oxford – Cambridge Boat Race, an event followed across the nation – and this year we would watch it on TV for the first time. “You support Oxford of course”, Granny Harley said to me, in a voice that brooked no argument.
According to Granny we were descendants of one Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, who had been Prime Minister in the time of Queen Anne in the early eighteenth century. And – adding spice to the story – she said Robert had been executed, had his head chopped off. Opposing Harley, and in some way responsible for his fate was a Duke of Marlborough, whose descendants included Winston Churchill, and who had some connection with Cambridge. Hence my position on the outcome of the Boat Race was sealed forevermore.
As time passed I learned more about this supposed ancestor of ours. The first discovery – somewhat disappointing – was that, while indeed he had been prime minister, and while the rivalry for the favor of Queen Anne was true, he had not been executed but had died of natural causes – probably accelerated by drink. But I never questioned the essential authenticity of the tale. I took for granted this noble heritage, and my place as a descendant of a peer of the realm.
My parents were solidly middle class – upper-middle maybe, in England’s highly stratified class system. Our grandfathers appear to have had slippery fingers when it came to the family fortunes, but I was led to believe that there had been some downward mobility. Grandfather Harley was reported to have spent time with Edward, the Prince of Wales, a lover of wine, women and song. My mother, Joan Harley, recalled waiting for her father in the car outside Windsor Castle on a number of occasions, from whence he would emerge having been well entertained – though it is possible that her memories were of waiting outside the Prince of Wales, a pub in Twickenham, where her father had a room for some years during her teens.
I gathered that Grandfather Harley, whom we never met, had lived beyond his means. He was a bad investor, apparently and one of his poor investments involved an ostrich farm in Rhodesia, just moments before ostrich feathers went out of fashion. Nevertheless I knew for sure that mother hung out with the rich and famous in her youth.
I always thought I had something of a handle on the British class system – knew who was who and where they sat on the various strata – a required survival skill for English children. But as I look back I realize that there were contradictions staring me in the face. My grandmother’s house, for instance. It seemed very grand to me as a child, but it was in the solidly middle class London suburb of Hendon.
77 Vivian Avenue, Hendon
The earliest ancestor of the Harley name I can claim with confidence is Edward Harley of Hopton Castle, Shropshire, born in 1757, died before 1840. This Edward lived at the same time as Edward Harley the 4th Earl of Oxford, (1726-1790) and Edward Harley the 5th Earl of Oxford, 1773-1848. Clearly this ancestor was not an earl. And so, inevitably, my search for our ancestors has led me to reject the founding family myth. But … it hangs by a thread still, so stay tuned … the myth may have legs.