William Harvey. Sir D'Arcy Power
Whose Soule rest in Heaven, her body in this Grave:
To her a Happy Advantage: to Hers an Unhappy Loss.”
The children of Thomas and Joan Harvey were—
(1) William, born at Folkestone on the 1st of April, 1578; died at Roehampton, in Surrey, on the 3rd of June, 1657; buried in the “outer vault” of the Harvey Chapel at Hempstead, in Essex.
(2) Sarah, born at Folkestone on the 5th of May, 1580, and died there on the 18th of June, 1591.
(3) John, born at Folkestone on the 12th of November, 1582; servant-in-ordinary, or footman, to James I.—“a post,” says Sir James Paget, “which does not certainly imply that he was in a much lower rank than his brothers. It may have been such a place at Court as is now called by a synonym of more seeming dignity; or, if not, yet he may have received a good salary for the office whilst he discharged its duties by deputy.” Thus Burke in his famous speech on Economical Reform mentions that the king’s turnspit was a member of Parliament.
He received a pension of fifty pounds a year when he resigned his place to Toby Johnson on the 6th of July, 1620. He was a member of Gray’s Inn, and filled several offices of importance, for he was “Castleman” at Sandgate, in Kent, and King’s Receiver for Lincolnshire jointly with his brother Daniel. He sat in Parliament as a member for Hythe, and died unmarried on the 20th of July, 1645.
(4) Thomas was born at Folkestone on the 17th of January, 1584–1585. He married first Elizabeth Exton, about 1613; and, secondly, Elizabeth Parkhurst, on the 10th of May, 1621, and he had children by both marriages. His only surviving son sat as M.P. for Hythe in 1621; he also acted as King’s Receiver for Lincolnshire. Thomas Harvey was a Turkey merchant in St. Laurence Pountney, at the foot of London Bridge. He was perhaps a member of the Grocers’ Company. He died on the 2nd of February, 1622–1623, and was buried in St. Peter-le-Poor.
(5) Daniel, also of Laurence Pountney Hill, a Turkey merchant and member of the Grocers’ Company, was born at Folkestone on the 31st of May, 1587. He was King’s Receiver for Lincolnshire jointly with his brother John. He married Elizabeth Kynnersley about 1619, paid a fine rather than serve the office of Sheriff of London at some time before 1640, and died on the 10th of September, 1649. He was a churchwarden of St. Laurence Pountney in 1624–1625, and was buried there; but his later days were spent on his estate at Combe, near Croydon, in Surrey. His fourth son became Sir Daniel Harvey, and was ambassador at Constantinople, where he died in 1672. His daughter Elizabeth married Heneage Finch, the first Earl of Nottingham, and from this marriage are descended the Earls of Winchelsea and Aylesford.
(6) Eliab, also of Laurence Pountney Hill, a Turkey merchant and member of the Grocers’ Company, was born at Folkestone on the 26th of February, 1589–1590. He was the most successful of the merchant brothers, and to his watchful care William owed much of his material wealth; for Aubrey says that “William Harvey took no manner of care about his worldly concerns, but his brother Eliab, who was a very wise and prudent manager, ordered all not only faithfully but better than he could have done for himself.” Eliab had estates at Roehampton, in Surrey, and at Chigwell, in Essex. He built the “Harvey Mortuary Chapel with the outer vault below it” in Hempstead Church, near Saffron Walden. Here he buried his brother William in 1657, and here he was himself buried in 1661. He married Mary West on the 15th of February, 1624–1625, and by her had several children, of whom the eldest at the Restoration became Sir Eliab Harvey.
Walpole writes to Mann about one of his descendants. “Feb. 6, 1780. Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at the Cocoa Tree, the difference of which amounted to an hundred and fourscore thousand pounds. Mr. O’Birne, an Irish gamester, had won £100,000 of a young Mr. Harvey of Chigwell, just started for a midshipman into an estate by his elder brother’s death. O’Birne said, ‘You can never pay me.’ ‘I can,’ said the youth; ‘my estate will sell for the debt.’ ‘No,’ said O’B., ‘I will win ten thousand—you shall throw for the odd ninety.’ They did, and Harvey won.” This midshipman afterwards became Sir Eliab Harvey, G.C.B., in command of the Téméraire at the battle of Trafalgar, and Admiral of the Blue. He sat in the House of Commons for the town of Maldon from 1780 to 1784, and for the county of Essex from 1802 until his death in 1830. With him the male line of the family of Harvey became extinct.
(7) Michael, the twin brother of Matthew, was born at Folkestone on the 25th of September, 1593. He lived in St. Laurence Pountney, and St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate. Like his other brothers he was a Turkey merchant, and perhaps a member of the Grocers’ Company. He married Mary Baker on the 29th of April, 1630, and after her death Mary Millish, about 1635. He had three children by his second wife, and one of his sons died at Bridport in 1685 from wounds received in the service of King James II. Michael Harvey died on the 22nd of January, 1642–1643, and is buried in the church of Great St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate.
(8) Matthew, the twin brother of Michael, and like him a Turkey merchant and perhaps a member of the Grocers’ Company, was born at Folkestone on the 25th of September, 1593. He married Mary Hatley on the 15th of December, 1628, and dying on the 21st of December, 1642, was buried at Croydon. His only child died in her infancy.
(9) Amye, the youngest daughter and last child of Thomas and Joan Harvey, was born at Folkestone on the 26th of December, 1596. She married George Fowke in 1615, and died, leaving issue, at some time after 1645.
Mr. W. Fleming, the assistant librarian, tells me that nine autotype reproductions of the portraits of the Harvey family at Rolls Park (page 4) are now suspended on the left-hand side wall of the hall of the Royal College of Physicians in Pall Mall. They represent (1) Thomas Harvey and his seven sons. (2) William Harvey, probably an enlarged portrait of that in the preceding group. (3) A family group in the dress of the Queen Anne period. (4) Portrait of a lady in the dress of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; in the corner of the picture appears “obiit 25 Maii 1622.” (5), (6) and (7) Portraits of ladies in the dress of the eighteenth century. (8) Portrait of a gentleman in the dress of Charles II.’s time. (9) Portrait of a gentleman in the dress of Queen Anne’s reign.
II
Early Life
Very little is known of the early life of William Harvey. His preliminary education was probably carried on in Folkestone, where he learnt the rudiments of knowledge, gaining his first acquaintance with Latin. One of his earliest distinct recollections must have been in the memorable days in July, 1588, when all was bustle and commotion in his native town. The duty of resisting the Spanish Armada in Kent and Sussex fell upon the “Broderield,” or confederation of the Cinque Ports, a body which consisted of the Mayor, two elected Jurats, and two elected Commoners from Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hythe, Winchelsea, and Rye. And as Folkestone for all purposes of defence was intimately allied with Dover, it is not at all unlikely that Thomas Harvey, one of its Jurats, was of its number, or that he was a member of the “Guestling,” which, affiliated with the Broderield, had to fix the number, species, and tonnage of the shipping to be found by each port, a somewhat difficult task, as each port’s share was a movable quantity requiring constant rearrangement. But even with the machinery of the Broderield and the Guestling, it must have needed much activity to raise the £43,000 which the Cinque Ports contributed to set out the handy little squadron of thirteen sail which did its duty under the orders of Lord Henry Seymour in dispersing the remains of the great Spanish fleet. Harvey must have had some remembrance of the turmoil of the period, though it may have been partially effaced by his new experiences at the King’s School, Canterbury, where he was entered for the first time in the same year.
He remained at the King’s School for five years, no doubt coming home for the holidays, some of which must have been spent in watching the constant transport of troops to Spain and Portugal which was so noticeable a feature in the history of the Cinque Ports during the later years of the life of Elizabeth.
His schooling ended, Harvey entered at once as a pensioner, or ordinary student, at Caius College, Cambridge,