Simon Harcourt 1684-1720

Simon HARCOURT 1684-1720

Biographical Note

Born at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, second son of Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt and Lord Chancellor 1713-14. Matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford 1702 (a year after being admitted at the Inner Temple), but did not graduate (he was awarded an MA in 1712); he then travelled on the continent for some years, where he was noted as a Jacobite sympathiser. MP for Wallingford 1710 and for Abingdon 1713; he spent some time in France during the 1710s, during which decade his health was noted to be in decline (through excessive drinking). He married Elizabeth, granddaughter of the diarist John Evelyn. The Harcourt title was inherited by his son Simon, later 1st Earl Harcourt.

Books

Harcourt's library, together with "a select parcel of books collected abroad, for the use of a nobleman", was sold by retail sale in London, beginning 24 November 1724; no catalogue survives, but the sale was advertised in the Daily Post.

Sources

• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Handley, Stuart. "Harcourt, Simon, first Viscount Harcourt (1661?–1727), lawyer and politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.