THE HARLEYS OF SHROPSHIRE

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One branch of our family tree has the surname Harley, which is clearly toponymic: a place-name type of surname. We will assume initially that it could be derived from the village and parish of Harley in Shropshire or possibly from another village of that name in West Yorkshire, just north of Sheffield, near Hoyland Nether. The location name apparently means ‘a wood or clearing with hares’, and some of the early entries in parish registers are actually written as Hareley and Harely.

For instance, in the parish of Rugeley, in Staffordshire, the modern spelling of Harley appears (in the IGI) only twice for 17th century entries, once for 18th century entries and then commonly for 19th century entries; whereas the older spelling Hareley is widely used for the 16th, 17th and early 18th century entries.

Shropshire Entries in the International Genealogical Index

Our initial search through the IGI [1988 series] quickly revealed an abundance of entries with the surname Harley in Shropshire, which suggests that our basic assumption may be right in this case. A sketch-map (at the end of this chapter) illustrates the geographical locations of these particular entries in comparison with the location of the parish of Harley itself.

Apart from a few isolated entries for parishes in the northern half of Shropshire, we found two main 16th/17th century Harley family centres in the county plus a third smaller grouping which lasted a few decades only:

The cluster of parishes of Astley Abbotts [1562 onwards], Chetton [1564 onwards], Claverley [1569 onwards], Bridgnorth [1577 onwards], Tasley [1594 onwards] and Alverley [1592], situated roughly 10 miles south-east of the village of Harley.
The cluster of parishes of Clungunford [1563 onwards], Clunbury [1574 onwards], Ludlow [1587 onwards] and Culmington [1591 onwards] in the south-east of the county, right alongside the county boundary with Herefordshire and Radnorshire, approximately 20 miles south-west of Harley. In addition there are several isolated entries for about 16 other parishes in the same district during the same period.
The parishes of Leebotwood [1550-1624], Acton Burnel [1585-1600], Cardington [1552-1558] and Frodesley [1555], just 4-6 miles west of Harley.

The first and third groupings in this list would appear to represent the normal ramification of a family surname which one would expect in parishes surrounding a ‘source’ parish. No Harleys are recorded in the IGI from the actual parish of Harley itself. This is understandable, for obvious reasons, but also because the IGI entries for that parish apparently commence in 1745! It is clear, however, that the movement of Harleys in Shropshire is comparatively meagre and restricted, just a few to Leebotwood and district and rather more to Bridgnorth and district. Perhaps Bridgnorth was the principal town of the area at that time. Certainly Shrewsbury had not attracted them [and it is well-covered by the IGI].

According to map 29 of Shropshire in that most useful of genealogical books, The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers, it is recorded that Harley parish registers commenced in 1745. Yet on page 214 of the book it is recorded that the Society of Genealogists has copies of Harley registers from 1590-1812 and Boyd’s Marriage Index covers the parish from 1601-1812.

Chronological Problems:
There are some obvious snags with this very simple approach to finding one’s geographical origins. The chronological starting point of the International Genealogical Index differs from parish to parish and, of course, it differs from series to series as the Mormon researchers progressively update their computer files.

Chetton parish registers have been covered by the IGI from 1538, but the first Harley entry (in the IGI listings for the parish) is dated 1564 and the rest from 1575. This might, therefore, reasonably imply a movement of people who called themselves Harley into Chetton parish around those dates.

Bridgnorth is covered in the IGI from the start of its parish registers in 1556, with the first of the 25 pre-1700 Harley entries dated 1577. This, too, may reasonably suggest a rough date for the arrival of our Harleys into Bridgnorth.

On the other hand, Clunbury is covered in the IGI only from 1574 (presumably the start of the parish registers still extant), with the first of 24 pre-1700 Harley entries also dated 1574. Hence it is reasonable to assume that this date is unlikely to represent the first ‘arrivals’ of Harleys into that parish.

In the case of the south-western cluster of parishes, it is particularly unfortunate that our IGI technique also breaks down because the IGI coverage of the associated border parishes in Herefordshire is presently extremely poor. Perhaps in future series of the IGI this short-coming will be rectified.

The Harleys of Brampton Bryan

It is known from other sources that Sir Robert de Harley of Harley, who settled in what is now the parish of Brampton Bryan, just across the Herefordshire border, around 1300 or so, is said to belong to the Shropshire family along the ‘main’ Harley line, whatever that means.

The original Brampton family had lived there, on Mortimer land, apparently since the time of Henry I [1100-1135], with Brian de Brampton holding the property at the time of Edward I [reigned 1272-1307]. He married [post 1282] Maud or Matilda, the daughter of William de Broase and the widow of Roger de Mortimer [1231-1282], 6th Baron Wigmore. Their daughter, Margaret de Brampton, married Robert de Harley [sheriff of Herefordshire] in 1302, and it was this branch of the Harley family which later produced the earls of Oxford and Mortimer and gave their name to Harley Street in London, amongst other places.

It is an interesting digression to note that the Roman road from Magnis (Kenchester near Hereford) via Bravonium (Leintwardine, near Brampton Bryan and Clungunford) to Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter near Shrewsbury) passed close to Harley, Brampton and Hereford, and, whilst it was not one of the ‘Royal Roads’ of the Middle Ages (Icknield Way, Ermine Street, Watling Street and Fosse Way), it might still have been a usable route from Harley to Hereford around 1300. Could Sir Robert Harley have used that route from time to time, stopping off overnight at Brampton Castle?

Meanwhile, Brampton Castle apparently passed from the Brampton family to the Harleys sometime after the marriage of Robert de Harley and Margaret de Brampton. A century later, in 1403, at the time of the Owain Glyn Dwr uprising, the castle was held by Brian Harley.

Yet another century later, John Harley of Brampton Bryan married Anne Croft of nearby Croft Castle (she was the great great great grand-daughter of Owain Glyn Dwr); and among the numerous descendants of this marriage is HM Queen Elizabeth II, via her mother’s great great great grandmother, Margaret Cavendish Harley [1715-1785], who married William Bentinck [2nd Duke of Portland].

Thus there was a major land-owning Harley family in residence on the Herefordshire-Shropshire border near the centre of one of the two principal clusters of Harley families in Shropshire. Perhaps the Clungunford and district Harleys took their name directly or indirectly from this important family and not as a result of normal ramification from the actual parish of Harley? We don’t know; but why did so many move into that particular part of Shropshire? Could they have been Sir Robert de Harley’s “entourage” or “men at arms”, initially perhaps from the village of Harley, but eventually taking residence around the new (Brampton) home of Sir Robert when their service was finished?

Harley Ramification Outside Shropshire

The ramification of the Harley surname outside the county of Shropshire can be assessed only partially by this very simple technique. Firstly, Herefordshire (on the south) appears to be covered only very poorly in the IGI, and Cheshire (on the north) has many gaps. Secondly, it is not possible to check the IGI for Harleys in Wales (to the west) pre-1700 because of the unfortunate patronymic system adopted by the IGI for all pre-1813 entries.

However, despite these limitations, it is clear that only a very small number of Harleys moved immediately out of the county into Staffordshire (principally to the parish of Rugeley 1573-1650); into Warwickshire [only nine scattered entries pre-1700]; into Worcestershire (principally Worcester from 1541-1604, with a scatter elsewhere); and into Gloucestershire (just 8 entries pre-1700).

Sketch-maps (at the end of the chapter) clearly reveal a scattering of (mainly isolated) Harleys throughout much of central England during the 16th and 17th centuries with small local clusters in the vicinity of Yorkshire and Lancashire, possibly originating from the West Riding village of Harley (though Dr. George Redmonds does not include the surname Harley in his book on Yorkshire surnames); in Lincolnshire; and in and around London.

Perhaps there was another source location in the Boston or Spalding region that we have missed, or perhaps this was simply a southward ramification from the Yorkshire source similar to the pattern of the Armitages and Nettleships? The London cluster is certainly quite extensive but must surely indicate the slow drift south-east probably from both source locations. Dr. P.H. Reany’s account of the origins of London immigrants 1147-1350 does not include any with the surname Harley, though by that time some immigrants had come from the nearby parishes of Ludlow and Much Wenlock in Shropshire and others from Wigmore near Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire.

The study has also been further complicated by variations in the spelling of Harley (there are places called Arley, for example, in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire and Lancashire, sometimes written Areley or Arely, meaning ‘eagle wood’), and also by the fact that some French Huguenots appear to have the surname Harlay, with the slightly different spelling. For example, we came across 19 [1655-1700] entries in the IGI of Harlay at Thorney French Huguenot Church in Cambridgeshire, which we have omitted from the maps. According to Tracing your Ancestors in the Public Record Office, Thorney was one of the main Huguenot settlements in England, the others being in London, Norwich, Canterbury, Southampton, Rye, Sandwich, Colchester, Bristol and Plymouth. In Cornwall and elsewhere the surname Harle is quite common, but is presumably pronounced ‘Harl’ not ‘Harlee’.

Origin of Harleys

It is fairly clear that there is probably no single source of the surname Harley. Some families, we would guess probably the majority, originated in or near the county of Shropshire. They may have had some previous link with the tiny village or parish of Harley, but not necessarily so.

Others may possibly have originated in the West Riding of Yorkshire. There may even have been another source in or near Lincolnshire which we have not located so far. Hare-ley, the wood or clearing full of hares, must surely have been a likely topographical name in many parts of the country. Even if it did not lead to the name of a village, were there farms with this name? Surely the Lincolnshire Harleys did not derive as a spelling or pronunciation error from the parish of Hareby between Horncastle and Spilsby? More likely it was a slightly larger than average localized ramification of Harleys moving towards the capital following a pattern similar to that of the Armitages.

The early scattering to the north-west of London (Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire) might indicate a movement from Shropshire towards the capital, but again it is possible that there is another source in that area which we have so far failed to find, a locality too small to be registered on maps or in gazetteers, or a long-lost name.

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