Dublin.
_Harley Family._--Can any reader of your invaluable miscellany give an
account of Thomas Harley, citizen of London, who died in the year 1670,
ætat. fifty-six? The Thomas Harley referred to possessed good estate in the
county of Leicester, {455} particularly at Osgathorpe, Walton-on-Wolds,
Snibston, and Heather. He founded a hospital at Osgathorpe, and endowed the
same at 60l. for the maintenance and support of six clergymen's widows.
Moreover he also erected a free-school, which he endowed with 60l. a year.
He married Mary, widow of William Kemp, citizen of London. His daughter,
and sole heiress, married into the family of Bainbrigge of Lockington Hall,
county of Leicester; which alliance carried with it the estate of Thomas
Harley into that family.
The arms of Thomas Harley are: Crest, a lion's head rampant; shield, Or,
bend cotized sable.
Is the foregoing family a branch of that of Herefordshire, now ennobled; or
does it come down from one of the name anterior to the time when such
earldom was made patent, viz. from Sir Richard Harley, 28 Edward I.: whose
armorial bearings, according to one annalist, is mentioned as _Or, bend
cotized sable_?
Brian de Harley, son of Sir Robert Harley, in the reign of Henry IV.,
changed his crest; which was a buck's head proper, to a lion rampant,
gules, issuing out of a tower, triple towered proper.