Robert Byerley

Robert Byerley (1660–1714), of Middridge Grange, Heighington, county Durham, and Goldsborough, Yorkshire, was an English soldier and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1685 and 1714. He is credited with capturing the Byerley Turk, a famous stallion considered one of the three major foundation sires of the Thoroughbred breed of race horse.[1]

Goldsborough Hall

The Byerley Turk

Byerley was the fourth, but second surviving son of Anthony Byerley of Middridge Grange, Heighington, county Durham and his wife Anne Hutton, daughter of Sir Richard Hutton of Goldsborough. He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford in 1677.[2]

As a soldier Byerley was a captain of an independent troop in 1685 and a member of Queen Dowager's Horse (later the 6th Dragoon Guards) from 1685 to 1687. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1689 and colonel in 1689–1692. He fought at the Battle of Buda in 1686 (where he captured the Byerley Turk) and at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Byerley was elected Tory Member of Parliament for County Durham in 1685 and 1689.[2] He was then returned for Knaresborough in 1695, 1698, Feb and Dec 1701, 1702, 1705, 1708, 1710 and 1713.[3]

Byerley was resident of Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough in Yorkshire, which he inherited from his wife's father.[4] He had married his cousin Mary Campbell, the divorced wife of James Campbell of Burnbank, Lanarkshire and daughter and heiress of Sir Philip Wharton, of Edlington, Yorkshire, on 17 March 1692. They had two sons and three daughters.