This post will be short and sweet. At least once a week I get a question about Jacob Harley, to be honest I’ve not done much research on him. I can give you what I have and you can build from there.

Jacob Harley, born the Earl of Oxford abt 1730 England. Son of an the third English/Brit Earl of Oxford came to America as a Tax Collector and met Mary Adkins, and by common law marriage (significant other), lived with her and was the parent of several children Mary Adkins d/o William V and Elizabeth Parker Adkins SR. in Virginia. Mary was born 12 OCT 1735 – Richland, Goochland, Virginia died: 1820 Cabell, Virginia – Beech Hill, Mason, West Virginia and buried in an unmarked grave on Beech Fork – Mouth of Bowen’s Creek.

When trouble between the Colonies and England began, Jacob returned to England without his family. At his death he left a large sum of money to his son Jacob, but he refused to go to England to claim his fortune. Instead, in 1779, he, along with his mother, brothers and sisters crossed the Allegheny Mountains and later, settled in the Beech Fork section of what is now Wayne County, West Virginia.

Reference: Grace Gregory’s” Book of Remembrance” Records that Jacob was a descendant of the third Earl of Oxford.

Excellent Online Reference:

History of the Ancestors, Families, and Descendants of Paris Patrick Comisford‎ – Page 266

by Bill Comisford – History – 2007 – 419 pages

Jacob Harley (known as the “Earl of Oxford“), the son of the third Earl of
Oxford, a Royalist.