Sir Robert Harley
1579–1656
Master of the Mint; Westminster Abbey iconoclast; Brampton Bryan patron.
Biography
Of Oriel Oxford and the Middle Temple, Harley was a long-serving MP for Radnorshire and (from 1641) Herefordshire and Master of the Mint from 1626. From his castle at Brampton Bryan — defended in his absence by his wife Brilliana through a fifteen-week royalist siege in 1643 — he sustained one of the most Puritan gentry households in the Welsh marches, sheltering and supporting Stanley Gower and other nonconforming ministers. As chairman of the parliamentary committee on the Abolition of Superstitious Monuments (1643), he superintended the iconoclasm at Westminster Abbey in 1644 — smashing altars, stained glass, and organs. He was secluded at Pride's Purge and died in 1656.
Lay Assessor — House of Commons
Parliament seated lay assessors alongside the divines to represent its interest and keep it informed of the Assembly's progress. The ordinance of 1643 named thirty members of the House of Commons as assessors; they could take part in debate but were not among the voting divines, and their attendance was often occasional as the war and parliamentary business pressed on them.