Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, PC (December 1661 – 29 July 1727) of

Stanton Harcourt Stanton Harcourt is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire about southeast of Witney and about west of Oxford. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Sutton, north of the village. The United Kingdom C ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, was an English

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

politician who sat in the English and

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

from 1690 until 1710. He was raised to the

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes Life peer, non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks. Peerages include: A ...

as Baron Harcourt in 1711 and sat in the House of Lords, becoming Queen Anne's

Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

. He was her solicitor-general and her commissioner for arranging the union with Scotland. He took part in the negotiations preceding the

Peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

Early life

Harcourt was born in December 1661 at

, Oxfordshire, to Stanton Harcourt, the only son of Sir Philip Harcourt, and his first wife Anne Waller, daughter of Sir William Waller of

Osterley Park Osterley Park is a Georgian era, Georgian country estate in west London, which straddles the London boroughs of London Borough of Ealing, Ealing and London Borough of Hounslow, Hounslow. Originally dating from the 1570s, the estate contains a ...

, Middlesex. He was educated at a school at Shilton, Oxfordshire, under Samuel Birch, to 1677 and was admitted at

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

in 1676. He matriculated at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

, on 30 March 1677, aged 15, and was awarded BA in 1679. In 1683, he was

Called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

. He had four brothers and four sisters from his father's second marriage in 1674 to Elizabeth Lee. He succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father on 20 March 1688.

Career

Harcourt was recorder of Abingdon from June to December 1687 and, after a break at the time of the revolution, from October 1689 to April 1711. At the

1690 English general election The 1690 English general election occurred after the dissolution of the Convention Parliament summoned in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, and saw the partisan feuds in that parliament continue in the constituencies. The Tories made sig ...

, he was returned as

Member of Parliament for Abingdon. In 1701 he was nominated by the Commons to conduct the

impeachment Impeachment is a process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In Eur ...

Lord Somers Baron Somers, of Evesham in the County of Worcester, is a title that has been created twice. The title was first created in the Peerage of England in 1697 for Sir John Somers, so that he could sit in the House of Lords and serve as Lord Chance ...

. In 1702 he became solicitor-general and was knighted by Queen Anne. In the same year he became bencher and treasurer of his Inn and was awarded DCL at Oxford University. At the

1705 English general election The 1705 English general election saw contests in 110 United Kingdom constituencies, constituencies in England and Wales, roughly 41% of the total. The election was fiercely fought, with mob violence and cries of "Church in Danger" occurring in ...

, he was returned as MP for

Bossiney Bossiney (, meaning ''Kyni's dwelling'') is a village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is north-east of the larger village of Tintagel which it adjoins: further north-east are the Rocky Valley and Trethevy. Until 1832 the village, ...

, and as commissioner for arranging the union with

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

which he was largely instrumental in promoting. Harcourt was appointed attorney-general in 1707, but resigned office in the following year when his friend Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, was dismissed. Harcourt defended Sacheverell at the bar of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

in 1710, being then without a seat in Parliament; but in the same year was returned for Cardigan, and in September again became attorney-general. In October he was appointed lord keeper of the great seal, and in virtue of this office he presided in the House of Lords for some months without a peerage, until, on 3 September 1711, he was created Baron Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt; but it was not till April 1713 that he received the appointment of Lord Chancellor. In 1710 he had purchased the

Nuneham Courtenay Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about SSE of Oxford. It occupies several miles close to the east bank of the River Thames. Geography The parish is bounded to the west by the River Thames and on other sides by field boundaries. ...

estate in Oxfordshire, but his usual place of residence continued to be at Cokethorpe near Stanton Harcourt, where he once received a state visit from Queen Anne. In the negotiations preceding the

, Harcourt took an important part. There is no sufficient evidence for the allegations of the Whigs that Harcourt entered into treasonable relations with the

Pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimat ...

. On the accession of

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George of Beltan (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgoruk ...

however, he was deprived of office and retired to Cokethorpe, where he enjoyed the society of men of letters,

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

Prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

and other famous writers being among his frequent guests. With Swift, however, he had occasional quarrels, during one of which the great satirist bestowed on him the sobriquet of "Trimming Harcourt." He exerted himself to defeat the impeachment of Lord Oxford in 1717, and in 1723 he was active in obtaining a pardon for another old political friend,

Lord Bolingbroke Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (; 16 September 1678 – 12 December 1751) was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically ...

. In 1721 Harcourt was created a viscount and returned to the privy councils; and on several occasions during the king's absences from England he was on the Council of Regency. In 1726, he acquired the manor of Cogges from the heirs of Sir Francis Blake.

Private life

Harcourt enjoyed the reputation of being a brilliant orator; Speaker Onslow going so far as to say that "Harcourt had the greatest skill and power of speech of any man I ever knew in a public assembly." He was a member of the famous Saturday Club, frequented by the chief literati and wits of the period, with several of whom he corresponded. Some letters to him from Pope are preserved in the Harcourt Papers. His portrait was painted by Kneller; it was once at Nuneham House. Harcourt married first at St Marylebone on 18 October 1680 Rebecca Clarke (buried at

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswolds in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 201 ...

, Oxfordshire, 16 May 1687), daughter of the Rev. Thomas Clarke, his father's

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

, by whom he had five children; secondly Elizabeth Spencer (c. 1657 –

Downing Street Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whiteh ...

, 16 June 1724), daughter of Richard Spencer; and thirdly in Oxfordshire on 30 September 1724 Elizabeth Vernon (c. 1678 – 12 July 1748), daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon, of Twickenham Park. He left children by his first wife only: * Hon. Simon Harcourt (1684 – 1 July 1720), who was MP for Wallingford, and predeceased his father, the Lord Chancellor, leaving a son, married Elizabeth Evelyn, sister of Sir

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...

, of Wotton, and daughter of John Evelyn, by whom he had one son and four daughters: **

Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, (1714 – 16 September 1777), known as Viscount Harcourt between 1727 and 1749, was a British diplomat and general who became Viceroy of Ireland. Biography Harcourt was born in Oxfordshire, the son of Hon ...

** Hon. Martha Harcourt (15 July 1715 –

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Lower Grosvenor Street Lower Grosvenor Street was a street in London, England, later renamed Grosvenor Street. It was at the south-eastern corner of Grosvenor Square, extending eastward towards Bond Street. Count de Melfort, in his ''Impressions of England'', describe ...

, 8 April 1794), married at

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

, Hanover Square, on 10 April 1744 George Venables-Vernon, afterwards

Baron Vernon Baron Vernon, of Kinderton in the County of Chester, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1762 for the former Member of Parliament George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon, George Venables-Vernon. He had previously repre ...

(9 February 1708 – 21 August 1780) ** Hon. Anne Harcourt ** Hon. Elizabeth Harcourt ** Hon. daughter Harcourt * Hon. Philip Harcourt, died young * Hon. Anne Harcourt, married John Barlow * Hon. Arabella Harcourt, married Herbert Aubrey He died at 2am at Harcourt House,

Cavendish Square Cavendish Square is a public square, public garden square in Marylebone in the West End of London. It has a double-helix underground commercial car park. Its northern road forms ends of four streets: of Wigmore Street that runs to Portman Square ...

, and was interred at Stanton Harcourt 4 August.

References

Sources

* Lord Campbell, ''Lives of the Lord Chancellors'', vol. v. (London, 1846); * Edward Foss, ''The Judges of England'', vol. viii. (London, 1848); *

Gilbert Burnet Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish people, Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch language, Dutch, French language, French, Latin language, Latin, Greek language, Gree ...

, ''History of his own Time'' (with notes by earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, etc., Oxford, 1833); * Earl Stanhope, ''History of England, comprising the reign of Queen Anne until the Peace of Utrecht'' (London, 1870).

External links

* The , - , - ---- * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harcourt, Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Attorneys general for England and Wales British MPs 1707–1708 British MPs 1708–1710 Lord chancellors of Great Britain Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Welsh constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies in Cornwall Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Solicitors general for England and Wales Tory MPs (pre-1834) Viscounts in the Peerage of Great Britain Peers of Great Britain created by Queen Anne 1660s births 1727 deaths Simon Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Nobility from Oxfordshire English MPs 1690–1695 English MPs 1695–1698 English MPs 1698–1700 English MPs 1701 English MPs 1701–1702 English MPs 1702–1705 English MPs 1705–1707 Tory members of the Parliament of Great Britain 1661 births