Brilliana, Lady Harley

Some of Lady Harley's 375 letters to her husband, Sir Robert Harley and her son Sir Edward Harley survive and show her to be an educated literary woman, at home in several languages. She was able to keep her husband informed of local political affairs when he was absent from home at Brampton Bryan in northwest Herefordshire, attending Parliament or for other reasons, and organised the collection of information locally for the Parliamentary Committee on Scandalous Ministers. She was deeply religious, and her letters frequently repeat religious sentiments and encouraged her family in their chosen Puritan practices. The letters also contain passages relating to personal details of their family life.[1]

During the English Civil War, in the absence of her husband and sons, Lady Harley defended her home, Brampton Bryan Castle, during a three-month siege by Royalist troops until the troops withdrew because they were needed at Gloucester.[1] She then compelled her tenants to level the Royalist siege earthworks. She also dispatched 40 troops to raid a local Royalist camp at Knighton.

Lady Harley died of pneumonia on 29 October 1643,[2] probably as a result of the hardships endured during the siege.[3]

By tradition (with a few gaps) the eldest daughters of Lady Harley's female descendants have given each eldest daughter the middle name of Brilliana.

Lady Brilliana Harley's published correspondence can be found in three volumes:

• Harley, Lady Brilliana (1854), Lewis, Thomas Taylor (ed.), Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley, Wife of Sir Robert Harley, of Brampton Bryan, Knight of the Bath, Camden Society
• Historical Manuscripts Commission (1904), Calendar of the manuscripts of the Marquis of Bath, Preserved at Longleat, Wiltshire, vol. 1, His Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 8–21
• Three letters, two dated August 24 and one August 25, which passed between Lady Harley and Sir J. Scudamore are printed from copies at Welbeck on pp. 114, 115 of the first volume of the report on the Harley papers belonging to the Duke of Portland (Fourteenth Report, Appendix. Part II).

The British Library holds many unpublished letters from Lady Harley.[4]

• Cliffe, John Trevor (1988), Puritans in Conflict: The Puritan Gentry During and After the Civil Wars, Routledge, pp. 84, ISBN 9780415008792
• Eales, Jacqueline. "Harley, Brilliana, Lady Harley (bap. 1598, d. 1643)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12334. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: "Harley, Brilliana" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Forsyth-Moser, Toria (2003), The First Siege (of Brampton Bryan), Herefordshire County Council, archived from the original on 23 December 2015, retrieved 10 July 2013
• Lee, Sidney (1890). "Harley, Brilliana" . In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

• "Not Just Dutiful Wives and Besotted Ladies: Epistemic Agency in the War Writing of Brilliana Harley and Margaret Cavendish". Early Modern Women. 2009.
• Read, Sara (2021), "A woman of masculine bravery: The life of Brilliana, Lady Harley (1598- 1643)", The Historian, no. 151, pp. 34–37, hdl:2134/16802842.v1

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Sieges of Brampton and Hopton castles

• The HSL-SHL online journal provides a detailed bibliography of all works pertaining to Brilliana, Lady Harley
• BBC Radio 4 UK Broadcast about her on 20 August 2008