Brilliana, Lady Harley (1598 – 29 October 1643), née Brilliana Conway, was a celebrated English letter-writer.
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Conway was born at Brill, near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, while her father Sir Edward Conway (later Viscount Conway) was Governor there. She married (as his third wife), Sir Robert Harley in 1623, who served as her father's aide in the Parliament of England, while her father was Secretary of State of England.
Some 375 of Lady Harley's letters to her husband and her son Sir Edward Harley survive and show her to be an educated literary woman, at home in several languages. She was able to keep her husband informed of local political affairs when he was absent from home at Brampton Bryan in northwest Herefordshire, attending Parliament or for other reasons, and organised the collection on information locally for the Parliamentary Committee on Scandalous Ministers. She was deeply religious, and her letters frequently repeat religious sentiments and encourage her family in their chosen Puritan practices. The letters also contain passages relating to personal details of their family life.
During the English Civil War, in the absence of her husband and sons, Lady Harley defended her home, Brampton Bryan Castle during a seven week siege by Royalist troops until the troops withdrew because they were needed at Gloucester. She then compelled her tenants to level the Royalist siege earthworks. She also dispatched 40 troops to raid a local Royalist camp at Knighton.
Lady Harley died of pneumonia on 29 October 1643. This was a result of the hardships endured during the siege[1].