In 2024 the tercentenaries of the deaths of two important 18th-century figures the fell within weeks of each other. Dr Charles Littleton compares the contrasting careers of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, and Dr Henry Sacheverell, who both suffered impeachment by Parliament

Robert Harley, Speaker of the Commons, secretary of state, earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer and, ultimately, lord treasurer and de facto leader of the government died on 24 May 1724. Just weeks later, on 5 June, Dr Henry Sacheverell died, infamous for his High Church diatribes against Nonconformists and the ‘false brethren’ in government who protected them.

Harley and Sacheverell’s careers were closely intertwined in the year 1710, but they were almost polar opposites. Sacheverell was High Church and ultra Tory; Harley of a Dissenting background and a moderate ‘Country’ Whig. Sacheverell was an outspoken, impetuous firebrand; Harley a subtle, political operator, who gained his moniker ‘Robin the Trickster’ because of his tendency always to hold his cards very close to his chest and to keep his opponents guessing.

By the beginning of 1710, however, both men were facing crises. Harley had been dismissed from his post in February 1708 as the government under Sidney Godolphin, earl of Godolphin, turned increasingly to the ‘Junto’ Whigs for support. From the last years of William III there had developed a strong enmity between the Junto and Harley, who thus found himself at odds with his erstwhile colleague Godolphin. Conflicts between them increased until the queen was persuaded to dismiss Harley. He was still out of office at the beginning of 1710 but looking for a way to strike back against his former colleague.

Matters were worse for Sacheverell, for on 9 Jan. 1710 he was impeached by the Commons for high crimes and misdemeanours, as he had finally gone too far in his anti-Dissenter vitriol. Back in 1702 he had already exhorted his listeners to ‘hang out the bloody flag and banner of defiance’ against those who refused to conform to the Church of England. Now, in a sermon of 5 November 1709 commemorating deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot, Sacheverell lumped Catholics and Protestant Dissenters together as equal threats to the constitution and the Church of England. He insisted that at the ‘Glorious Revolution’, the English people had not resisted against James II legitimately, as John Locke would have it, but had followed the Church’s teachings on non-resistance and passive obedience. Thus, the consequences of the Revolution pushed through by the Whigs, particularly the 1689 Toleration Act, were illegitimate and ought to be rescinded.

To Sacheverell, toleration had allowed the growth of ‘such monsters and vipers in our bosom, that scatter their pestilence at noon-day’. All this invective was disturbing enough for the Whigs in government, who relied heavily on nonconformist support. But it went further, for the sermon’s title, The Perils of False Brethren, made clear that Sacheverell was accusing the ministers who countenanced Dissent of insidiously betraying the Church of England from the very heart of government.

To the ministry’s horror, the sermon was a runaway best-seller when published in winter 1709, selling over 100,000 copies. They decided impeachment was the best way to silence Sacheverell, and charges were presented to the House of Lords on 12 January 1710. The subsequent state trial in Westminster Hall became the main focus of attention in the capital between 27 February and 10 March. It did not go to plan for the prosecution, as Sacheverell, playing the persecuted martyr, became a popular hero, and for two days from 28 February London was convulsed by riots in his favour. Despite the disturbances ‘beyond doors’, on 20 March the Lords voted him guilty by 69 votes to 52. However, while the government wanted him imprisoned and incapacitated from preaching, through the queen’s intervention the House resolved only to ban him from preaching for three years.

Sacheverell’s unexpected popularity was a harbinger of the Tory support the Whigs would face at the next general election, which by statute would take place in 1711. Further indications were not promising, for on 21 March, a motion in the Lords to prohibit Sacheverell from receiving any clerical promotion during his ban was lost by a majority of nine. That preferment came quickly enough, for in May he was presented to a living in Shropshire. He made a slow, triumphal progress through eight counties and twelve parliamentary boroughs on his way to his new rectory, feted enthusiastically throughout.

Harley saw his moment and encouraged the queen’s long-held dislike of the Junto. Throughout the summer of 1710 she rid herself of her Whig ministers, culminating in Godolphin’s dismissal on 8 August. On 21 September she capped off her campaign by dissolving Parliament and calling for an early general election. In the October elections the Tories won an overwhelming majority, inflicting a crushing defeat on the Whigs. Tory numbers were far more than Harley would have wished, and there would always be tension between him and the ultra Tories who had come into Parliament in Sacheverell’s wake.

As soon as they returned to power in 1715 the Whigs impeached Oxford and his associates. This did not go according to plan either and, after spending two years incarcerated in the Tower, Oxford was acquitted on 1 July 1717. Weakened from his confinement, he only lasted a few more years after his release, predeceasing by only a few weeks Sacheverell, the man whose own impeachment had contributed to Oxford’s rise to the premiership.

CGDL

Suggested Readings
Geoffrey Holmes, The Trial of Dr Sacheverell (1973)
Brian Cowan, ed., The State Trial of Doctor Henry Sacheverell (Parliamentary History: Text and Studies 6) (2012)
Brian Hill, Robert Harley: Speaker, Secretary of State and Premier Minister (1988)