HAYLEY, George (d.1781), of London

In 1781 the English Chronicle wrote about Hayley:

He was originally a clerk to the house in which he is now the principal, and by a fortunate marriage with his present amiable consort, with whom he received a dower of £15,000, and by the exertions of honest industry has so increased his fortune as to be deemed, at this time, one of the wealthiest merchants in the city. He is not very well calculated by endowments, nor inclined by disposition, to take an active share in the political bustle of the times, but is singularly exact in his payments, upright in his general transactions, and independent in his parliamentary conduct, which has always entirely coincided with that of his patriotic cynosure, the present chamberlain [John Wilkes].

In January 1775 Hayley took a leading part in the organization of a petition to Parliament from the merchants trading with America against the Government’s American measures.Walpole, Last Jnls. i. 417. During this year he spoke occasionally on questions concerning the colonies, but he was not a good speaker. Frederick Bull, commenting to Wilkes on a newspaper report of a debate, remarked: ‘Brother Hayley’s speech was short. I hope he did not stop in the middle. I think he told the House that if it had not been for his instructions he would not have troubled himself about the Americans.’Add. 30871, f. 228.

In 1778 Hayley was one of the committee appointed by the common council to petition the King to make peace with America,Last Jnls. ii. 124. and the same year, as representative of his ward, signed an association ‘for lawfully labouring to secure a more equal parliamentary representation’.General Evening Post, 9-12 Sept. 1780. He was returned again in 1780, standing jointly with Bull, John Sawbridge and John Kirkman as a declared opponent of the Government.

He died 30 Aug. 1781.