From Harley mythtory to Harley history

The Harley Earls lived in the village of Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire, a mere seven miles from Hopton Castle, where our ancestor Edward Harley lived and died. Robert Harley, the 1st Earl of Oxford and Prime Minister under Queen Anne, lived from 1661 until 1724, predating this ancestor by more than a century. So Granny Harley’s myth is looking strained. But perhaps in that century there might be a connection. So, nothing daunted, I contacted the Harley Estate, and after a search I was informed by their archivist that it is possible that the Edward of Hopton Castle is descended from a Junior Branch which had settled at Beckjay, Clunungford.

The Clunungford branch, it seems, was established by the 3rd son of John Harley of Brampton Bryan (1521-1582), one William Harley, (c. 1540-1600).  I can trace the Harleys of Beckjay, the family home in Clunungford, to 1680; but there is a generation missing before a Thomas Harley, born in Clunungford in 1721 and died in Hopton Castle in 1788.  This Thomas had a son Edward, born in Hopton Castle, in 1857.  And this Edward, I believe to be our ancestor.  But there is that missing generation. 

What’s more, there was a controversy in the late nineteenth century as to whether the Clunungford Harleys were related to the Brampton Bryan Harleys or not.  So I rest my case, leave well enough alone, and remain content to have traced our Harley lineage back to a small village in Shropshire in the eighteenth century.

Thus Granny (Gilvray) Harley’s tale of our descent from the 1st Earl of Oxford is left to mythology. 

This Harley family lineage centers on Cecil Frances Harley and Elizabeth Joy Gilvray and their forebears, the shared ancestry of David, and Philip Harley and Sheila Macnee, and the late and much missed Ian,  and Hazel Macnee and Michael Harley.