Family and Education

bap. 20 Dec. 1611, 1st s. of William Harvey of Weston Favell by Mary, da. of Lawrence Ball of Northampton. educ. St. Edmund Hall, Oxf. 1627; M. Temple 1629, called 1637. m. (1) 21 Dec. 1637, Elizabeth (d. 8 Jan. 1643), da. of Richard Lane, attorney-gen. to the Prince of Wales, of Kingsthorpe, Northants., 1s. d.v.p.; (2) Mary, 3s. (2 d.v.p.), 2da.; (3) lic. 7 Apr. 1665, Elizabeth, wid. of John Dickens, Haberdasher, of Crutched Friars, London, s.p. suc. fa. 1634.1

Offices Held

Dep. recorder and alderman, Northampton by 1657-?June 1660; commr. for assessment, Northants. 1657, Jan. 1660, j.p. 1657-70; bencher, M. Temple 1658, reader 1663, treas. 1667-8; commr. for militia, Northants. Mar. 1660.2

Biography

Harvey’s Harvey’s grandfather, the younger son of a Norfolk family, became a duchy of Lancaster official and had settled in Northamptonshire by 1568. Harvey was named after his uncle, MP for Aldeburgh in 1597 and later a judge, and like him entered the legal profession. His small estate was only two miles from Northampton, of which he was a deputy recorder at the time of the general election of 1660. He stood on the corporation interest, but was unseated on petition without leaving any trace on the records of the Convention. He was again involved in a disputed election in 1661. He was allowed to sit on the merits of the return, but the election was declared void three weeks later before he had been nominated to any committees. By this time he had probably surrendered his place to Richard Rainsford I and he did not stand again, though he supported Christopher Hatton at the 1663 election. He was doubtless a nonconformist sympathizer, for he was dropped from the commission of the peace after the second Conventicles Act. In later life, he got into serious financial difficulties, and was forced to sell his estate to William Thursby^†, reserving only the advowson for his son. He seems to have subsisted on a pension from the Middle Temple. He was buried in the Temple Church on 30 Apr. 1703, aged 91. His son, grandson and great-grandson all took orders in the Established Church and enjoyed the family living, and none of his descendants entered Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / E. R. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Bridges, Northants. i. 75; Pepys Diary, ii. 330; PCC 132 Laud.
• 2. J. C. Cox, Northampton Bor. Recs. ii. 106.
• 3. Bridges, i. 74-76; Add. 29551, f. 12; J. Cole, Hist. Weston Favell, 28.