James Hartley was born at Dumbarton, on the Clyde, the first son of John Hartley, a gifted glassmaker, who later moved to Oldbury, Shropshire, to work for William Chance’s glass manufactory. Upon his father’s death, Hartley and his younger brother John were briefly taken into partnership by Chance before they moved to Sunderland in 1836, where they established the Wear Glass Works, trading as James Hartley and Co. In 1838, he was granted a patent for ‘Hartley’s Patent Rolled Plate’, a new kind of roofing glass, which was used for the Crystal Palace in 1851. His firm concentrated on this ‘glass plate’ for the next fifty years, producing nearly one million feet per annum, and he became an extremely wealthy man. A prominent member of the River Wear Commission and a director of the North Eastern railway company, he was also active in local Conservative politics, and helped secure the return of George Hudson, the railway magnate, for the borough at the 1845 by-election. He also held at various times the positions of councillor, alderman and mayor of the Sunderland town council.
Following Hudson’s retirement at the 1865 general election, Hartley offered in his place as a Liberal-Conservative for Sunderland. A supporter of the abolition of church rates, he insisted that his ‘principles are those of Conservative progress’, and narrowly secured second place.
Although Hartley attended frequently, he made little impact in the House, and his only known contribution to debate was a question on the expediency of extending the Factory Acts to glass manufactories, 2 Apr. 1867. He was a member of the select committee on the extension of the Factory Acts, where he generally divided in the majority.
Hartley declined to defend his seat at the 1868 general election, choosing instead to contest East Staffordshire, home to his father’s side of the family, where he was comprehensively defeated. He retired from the Wear Glass Works the following year, but remained a prominent figure in local public life. He was elected the first chairman of Sunderland school board in 1871 and served until six years later, when his staunch support for the established church cost him his seat.