"Sir Simon Harcourt's last Speech to the house of Commons when he was Voted not duly Elected for the Borrough of Abingdon” Really before the Committee of Elections. No doubt preserved at Baron Hill because of Harcourt’s Toryism and his being supported at Abingdon by the Bertie interests (with which family the fourth Viscount had intermarried). This unseating was really a stroke of good luck for Harcourt, because it set him free to make his famous speech in defence of Sacheverell, which in turn led to his appointment as Attorney-General and soon afterwards as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (1710), and later (1713) Lord Chancellor. It is a curious act that Harcourt found refuge in the Cardigan Boroughs after his unseating at Abingdon, but only represented them from February to September, 1710. W.R. Williams (Parliamentary History, 39) says that is the only instance of a Welsh constituency returning a future Lord Chancellor January 1708-1709