Harley, Robert, First Earl of Oxford (1661–1724), a British statesman. Harley began his career as a Whig and ended as a Tory. He helped negotiate the union of England and Scotland in 1707, and the Peace of Utrecht, ending the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1713. He hired Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift to write pamphlets supporting his policies. Harley was in the House of Commons, 1689–1711, and was its speaker, 1701–05. In 1711 he was made an earl and appointed lord treasurer. During 1715–17 he was held in the Tower of London for suspected treason. His books and manuscripts form the Harleian Collection in the British Museum.