HARTLEY, DAVID, THE YOUNGER

born 1731, Bath, Somerset, Eng. died Dec. 19, 1813, Bath radical English pamphleteer, member of the House of Commons (177480, 178284), and inventor, son of the philosopher David Hartley. As British plenipotentiary he signed the Treaty of Paris (Sept. 3, 1783), ending the U.S. War of Independence, which he had opposed. About 1776 he became well known for his method of protecting buildings against fire, and he attracted crowds to experiments performed at his house on Putney Common, London. In London he became a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom he corresponded for several years following Franklin's return to the U.S. Believing that a peaceful reconciliation between Great Britain and the North American colonies was possible, he attacked the conflict both in parliamentary speeches and in his Letters on the American War (177879). He was also sympathetic toward the French Revolution and critical of the African slave trade.