HARVEY, Michael (1694-1748), of Coombe, Surr. and Clifton Maybank, nr. Milborne Port, Dorset.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

10 June - 6 July 1717
1722 - 1741
2 Feb. 1742 - 1747

Family and Education

b. 10 May 1694, o. surv. s. of Edward Harvey of Coombe, by his 1st w. m. (settlement 23 Apr. 1715) Rebecca, da. of Sir John Wolstenholme, 3rd Bt., M.P., of Edmonton, Mdx., s.p. suc. wid. of cos. Michael Harvey, M.P., at Clifton Maybank 1717 and fa. 1736.

Offices Held

Biography

Michael Harvey, a Tory like his father, ruined himself by successive contests at Milborne Port, which he represented for a quarter of a century. His name was sent to the Pretender in 1721 as a probable supporter in the event of a rising.1 In 1743 a private Act was passed vesting his Leicestershire estates in trustees for the discharge of encumbrances on his Surrey estates. He was also forced to mortgage his Clifton estate and his property at Milborne Port to Peter Walter. In 1747 he was unseated by the House of Commons on a double return at Milborne Port, the merits of the election, as distinct from those of the return, being referred by the House to the elections committee, which had not reported when he died of apoplexy, 3 Oct. 1748. Peter Walter foreclosed on the Clifton and Milborne Port properties shortly before his death, after which his Surrey estates were sold.2

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Stuart mss 65/16.
  • 2. Hutchins, Dorset, iv. 122-3.