David Hartley (the Younger)

Life

Hartley was born in Bath, Somerset, England in 1732. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford on 6 April 1747 at age 15. He was awarded his B.A. on 14 March 1750 and was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford until his death. He became a student of Lincoln's Inn in 1759. During the 1760s, he gained recognition as a scientist and, through mutual interests, he met and became an intimate friend and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin. Hartley was sympathetic to the Lord Rockingham's Whigs, although he did not hold office in either Rockingham ministry. He represented Kingston upon Hull in parliament from 1774 to 1780, and from 1782 to 1784, and attained considerable reputation as an opponent of the war with America, and of the African slave trade. A fellow abolitionist of slavery, William Wilberforce, took Hartley's place as MP for Hull in 1780 and was co-member during Hartley's second term.

He was expert in public finance and spoke frequently in Parliament in opposition to the war in America. Although a liberal on American policy, Hartley was a long-time friend of Lord North and strongly disliked Prime Minister Shelburne. He supported the Coalition by voting against Shelburne's peace preliminaries. It was probably owing to his friendship with Benjamin Franklin, and to his consistent support of Lord Rockingham, that he was selected by the government to act as plenipotentiary in Paris, where, on 3 September 1783, he and Franklin drew up and signed the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States.

Hartley died at Bath on 19 December 1813, aged 82.

His portrait was painted by George Romney and has been engraved by John Walker in mezzotint. Nathaniel William Wraxall says that Hartley, "though destitute of all personal recommendation of manner, possessed some talent with unsullied probity, added to indefatigable perseverance and labour". He adds that his speeches were intolerably long and dull, and that "his rising always operated like a dinner bell" (Memoirs, iii. 490).

Writings

Hartley's writings are mostly political, and set forth the arguments of the extreme liberals of his time. In 1764 he wrote a vigorous attack on the Bute administration, "inscribed to the man who thinks himself a minister". His most important writings are his Letters on the American War, published in London in 1778 and 1779, and addressed to his constituents. "The road", he writes, "is open to national reconciliation between Great Britain and America. The ministers have no national object in view . . . the object was to establish an influential dominion of the crown by means of an independent American revenue uncontrolled by parliament". He seeks throughout to vindicate the opposition to the war. In 1794 he printed at Bath a sympathetic Argument on the French Revolution, addressed to his parliamentary electors.

Hartley edited his father's well-known Observations on Man, in London 1791 and (with notes and additions) in 1801.

In 1859, a number of Hartley's papers were sold in London. Six volumes of letters and other documents relating to the peace went to America and passed into the collection of Levi Leiter of Washington, D.C.; others are in the British Museum.

Inventions

In his last years, Hartley studied chemistry and mechanics. In 1774 he published Account of a Method of Securing Buildings and Ships against Fire, by placing thin iron planks under floors and attaching them to the ceilings, partly to prevent immediate access of the fire, and partly to stop the free supply of air. He built a house Wildcroft Manor on Putney Heath to verify the efficacy of his invention. An obelisk was built on the heath, adjacent to Tibbet's corner, 1776 marking the Lord Mayor of London's decision to give Hartley £2,500 for work on his fire plates. It makes mention of its being erected on the 110th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. On the occasion of a fire at Richmond House, on 21 December 1791, he wrote a pamphlet urging the value of his fire plates.

The brick obelisk with heavily inscribed foundation stone still stands on Putney Heath, near where the A219 veers from the A3 at Tibbet's Corner, towards Putney. There is no parking at the site; however there is parking and footpath access from near the adjacent Telegraph Pub, off Wildcroft Road. Since 1955 the obelisk has been a Grade II listed building.

The inscription reads:

– South face (towards the A3):

THE RT. HON. JOHN SAWBRIDGE SQRE

LORD MAYOR OF LONDON

LAID THE FOUNDATION STONE

OF THIS OBELISK

ONE HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS

AFTER THE FIRE OF LONDON

ON THE ANNIVERSARY

OF THAT DREADFUL EVENT

IN MEMORY OF AN INVENTION

FOR SECURING BUILDINGS

AGAINST FIRE.

– East face:

By VIRTUE of an ORDER of the Right Hon. the

LORD MAYOR ALDERMEN and COMMONS of

the CITY of LONDON in Common Council

Assembled Dated the 22nd. November 1776

DAVID HARTLEY Esq. was admitted into the FREEDOM

of the said CITY in the COMPANY of GOLDSMITHS

in the time of the Rt. Hon Sr. THOMAS HALLIFAX KNt.

LORD MAYOR and BENJAMIN HOPKINS ESQ CHAMBERLAIN

in CONSIDERATION of the ADVANTAGES likely to accrue to the

PUBLIC by his INVENTION of FIRE PLATES for securing

buildings from FIRE and for his respectful attention to this CITY

in his repeated EXPERIMENTS performed before many of the

members of the COURT. The RECORD of which EXPERIMENTS

and also of his admission into the FREEDOM of the said CITY of

LONDON is entered in the BOOK signed with the letter R["¦?]c

IN WITNESS whereof the SEAL of the Office of CHAMBERLAIN

thereunto affixed DATED in the GUILD-HALL of the same

CITY the 26th. day of March in the 17th. Year of the Reign of

Our SOVEREIGN LORD GEORGE the THIRD &c

And in the Year of Our LORD MDCCLXXVII

– North Face (towards the car park and public house):

By the COMMONS of GREAT BRITAIN

IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED

2E Lunœ 16° Die Maii 1774

RESOLVED NE MINE CONTRADICENTE

That a sum not exceeding Two Thousand Five Hundred

Pounds be granted to His MAJESTY to be paid

To DAVID HARTLEY, ESQR.

Towards enabling him to defray the Charge of

Experiments in order to ascertain the practicability

and Utility of his INVENTION for securing buildings

from FIRE and that the same be paid without Fee

or Reward

Confirmed by ACT of Parliament

ANNO 14° GEORG II 3lu REGIS

– West face:

HALLIFAX MAYOR

A COMMON COUNCIL holden

in the Chamber of the GUILD-HALL of the

CITY of LONDON on the 22nd. of November 1776

RESOLVED.

That JOHN SAWBRIDGE ESQ. the late

LORD MAYOR of this CITY having laid a

Foundation Stone for erecting an Obelisk on

Putney Common to commemorate the invention

of FIRE PLATES for securing buildings from FIRE

By DAVID HARTLEY ESQ

The Committee of City Lands be empowered

to erect and complete the same.

Notes

References

Attribution:

References

1. ''The History of the Rise, Progress and Abolition of the African Slave-Trade'' (1839), Thomas Clarkson (available at [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10633 Project Gutenberg])
2. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-207057-hartley-memorial-obelisk-north-east-of-w Hartley Memorial Obelisk (north East of Wildcroft Manor), Putney
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarflondondunc/4502701874/in/photostream/ Obelisk To David Hartley — Putney Heath
4. "Obelisk to David Hartley, Kingston Rd., Putney Heath". Public Monuments & Sculpture Association.