Family and Education

b. ?1740, 2nd s. of David Hartley, physician, of Bath by his 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Robert Packer, M.P., of Bucklebury; half-bro. of David Hartley.  educ. C.C.C. Oxf. 11 Nov. 1757; L. Inn 1756.  m. (1) Mary, d.s.p. 15 Apr. 1786;1 (2) 24 Aug. 1787, Anne, da. of Samuel Blackwell of Williamstrip Park, Glos. 1s.  suc. to estates of uncle Henry Packer of Bucklebury 1746.

Offices Held

Biography

Hartley owned large estates in Berkshire and Gloucestershire, and was returned for Berkshire in 1776 and 1780 without a contest. In politics he followed his brother and consistently opposed North’s Administration. He ‘sometimes speaks’, wrote the Public Ledger in 1779, ‘which he had better let alone’; his speeches, though not as long as those of his half-brother, are flat and empty.

Hartley voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, and for Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. He voted for Pitt’s scheme of parliamentary reform, 7 May 1783. In 1784 he was defeated in Berkshire; he also stood for Gloucestershire, but retired after the first day’s poll.

He died 12 Aug. 1794, aged 54.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Her M.I. in Bucklebury church is in A. L. Humphreys, Bucklebury, 176.