William Harbord (25 April 1635 – 31 July 1692), of Grafton Park, was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
at various times between 1661 and 1690.
Life
Harbord was the second son of Sir Charles Harbord (1596–1679) of Charing Cross, who had been
Surveyor General
A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post.
The following surveyor ge ...
to
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
, and his second wife, Mary van Aelst, daughter of Jan van Aelst of
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. He entered Parliament in 1661 as member for
Dartmouth, and subsequently also represented
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...
and
Launceston.
[ Sir William Harbord]
HistoryofParliamentOnline.org. Accessed 1 December 2022.
In 1672, Harbord became secretary to the
Earl of Essex
Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...
, the new
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
. Essex praised him as "a very useful servant" and as a man of integrity who was also efficient in dispatching business. He lost the position on Essex's recall from Ireland in 1677.
In the parliamentary debates of 1676–8, Harbord spoke often against the alliance with France, and pressed for the removal of all
papists
The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...
from the King's person. He was notoriously intemperate in speech (he has been called one of the "angry men" of the Commons), and on one occasion he was warned not to disparage
Charles II. Thereafter he took care to exclude the King from his attacks on the Government: "the King is the best man living, and the furthest from Popery". However he frequently attacked the future James II: embittered by the death of his brother Charles at the
Battle of Sole Bay
The naval Battle of Solebay took place on 28 May Old Style, 7 June New Style 1672 and was the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
The battle began as an attempted raid on Solebay port where an English fleet was anchored and largel ...
in 1672, he made the absurd claim that James, as Lord Admiral, had betrayed the English fleet, and was forced to withdraw the allegation.
He was a firm believer in the reality of the
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...
, and in concert with
Ralph Montagu, whom he helped to get into Parliament, took an important part in the attack on the
Earl of Danby
Earl of Danby was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1626 in favour of the soldier Henry Danvers, 1st Baron Danvers. He had already been created Baron Danvers, of Dauntsey in the County of Wiltsh ...
. The revelation of Danby's secret dealings with France elated him to the point of hysteria: one historian has described his Commons speech on the subject ("poisoning and stabbing are in use....I am afraid that the King will be murdered") as "ravings".
His fear of
assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
by the alleged plotters seems to have been genuine, and he briefly considered quitting England. In the parliament of 1679, in which he represented Thetford, he spoke against Danby's pardon, attacked
John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale
John Maitland, 1st Duke and 2nd Earl of Lauderdale, 3rd Lord Maitland of Thirlestane KG PC (24 May 1616, Lethington, East Lothian – 24 August 1682), was a Scottish politician, and leader within the Cabal Ministry.
Background
Maitlan ...
, and was eager for the disbanding of the army. He was returned for the Oxford Parliament of 1681, and was expected to play a crucial role, but the King dissolved it after only a week.
Leaving England on the accession of
James II, Harbord served as a volunteer in the Imperial Army at
Siege of Buda in 1686. He accompanied
William of Orange on his invasion of England in 1688, and the following year was made a
Privy Counsellor
The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...
, to the dismay of the Tory party, and Paymaster of the Forces in Ireland. He returned to the Commons as member for Launceston. By now he has been described as an angry, embittered veteran, whose eloquence might win a debate, but rarely prevailed on an actual vote. In one of his frequent lapses of political judgment, he moved that two of James II's judges be hanged for
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
, a proposal which was crushingly rejected.
[Kenyon, J.P. ''Robert Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland 1641-1702'' Gregg Revivals 1992 p. 237]
Harbord was made Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in 1690. After a considerable delay he went to Ireland but returned without leave within a few months, pleading ill-health, having achieved nothing, according to his enemies, but in making a considerable profit at the Army's expense from his office as Paymaster General of the Irish Forces, and leaving the troops wholly out of pay. He was nominated by the King as Ambassador to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
on 2 November 1691, although William had taken a very poor view of his conduct in Ireland ("in another country he would have been hanged" the King said severely). He left England on 9 November, arriving in Vienna on 8 March 1692 to mediate between Sultan
Ahmed II
Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet.
Etymology
The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...
and the
Emperor Leopold I
Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria An ...
, but died in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
of a malignant fever, before reaching his posting in Constantinople, on 31 July 1692.
Family
Harbord married twice. By his first wife, Mary Duck, daughter of
Arthur Duck
Arthur Duck (1580 – 16 December 1648), Doctor of Civil Law (LL.D.) was an English lawyer, author and Member of Parliament.
Origins
Duck was born at Heavitree, near Exeter, Devon. the younger son of Richard Duck and his wife Joanna. His elder ...
and Mary Southworth, whom he married in 1661, he had three daughters,
* Mary Harbord (d.1715), who married Sir Edward Ayscough (1650–1699),
* Margaret Harbord, who married
Robert King, 2nd Baron Kingston
Robert King, 2nd Baron Kingston (born circa 1657, died 1693) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman.
He was the eldest son of John King, 1st Lord Kingston and Catherine Fenton, daughter of Sir William Fenton, 1st Baronet. He graduated M.A. Brasenose Col ...
,
* Grace Harbord, who married Thomas Hatcher;
and by his second, Catherine Russell, daughter of Edward Russell and Penelope Hill (and niece of the
1st Duke of Bedford), he had one daughter,
* Letitia Harbord (d. 1722), who married
Sir Rowland Winn, 3rd Baronet
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
, of Nostell.
References
* ''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'' (1930)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbord, William
1635 births
1692 deaths
People associated with the Popish Plot
Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall
Ambassadors of England to the Ottoman Empire
Ambassadors of England to the Netherlands
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
English MPs 1661–1679
English MPs 1679
English MPs 1680–1681
English MPs 1681
English MPs 1689–1690
English MPs 1690–1695
17th-century soldiers
People of the Great Turkish War
17th-century English diplomats
Chief Secretaries for Ireland
Members of the Parliament of England for Dartmouth
infectious disease deaths in Serbia