HARDY, SIR THOMAS DUFFUS (1804-1878), English antiquary, was the third son of Major Thomas Bartholomew Price Hardy, and belonged to a family several members of which had distinguished themselves in the British navy. Born at Port Royal in Jamaica on the 22nd of May 1804, he crossed over to England and in 1819 entered the Record Office in the Tower of London. Trained under Henry Petrie (1768-1842) he gained a sound knowledge of palaeography, and soon began to edit selections of the public records. From 1861 until his death on the 15th of June 1878 he was deputy-keeper of the Record Office, which just before his appointment had been transferred to its new London headquarters in Chancery Lane. Hardy, who was knighted in 1873, had much to do with the appointment of the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1869.
Sir T. Hardy edited the Close Rolls, Rotuli litterarum clausarum, 1204-1227 (2 vols., 1833-1844), with an introduction entitled “A Description of the Close Rolls, with an Account of the early Courts of Law and Equity”; and the Patent Rolls, Rotuli litterarum patentium, 1201-1216 (1835), with introduction, “A Description of the Patent Rolls, to which is added an Itinerary of King John.” He also edited the Rotuli de oblatis et finibus (1835), which deal also with the time of King John; the Rotuli Normanniae, 1200-1205, and 1417-1418 (1835), containing letters and grants of the English kings concerning the duchy of Normandy; the Charter Rolls, Rotuli chartarum, 1199-1216 (1837), giving with this work an account of the structure of charters; the Liberate Rolls, Rotuli de liberate ac de misis et praestitis regnante Johanne (1844); and the Modus tenendi parliamentum, with a translation (1846). He wrote A Catalogue of Lords Chancellors, Keepers of the Great Seal, Masters of the Rolls and Officers of the Court of Chancery (1843); the preface to Henry Petrie’s Monumenta historica Britannica (1848); and Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (3 vols., 1862-1871). He edited William of Malmesbury’s De gestis regum anglorum (2 vols., 1840); he continued and corrected John le Neve’s Fasti ecclesiae Anglicanae (3 vols., Oxford, 1854); and with C. T. Martin he edited and translated L’Estorie des Engles of Geoffrey Gaimar (1888-1889). He wrote Syllabus in English of Documents in Rymer’s Foedera (3 vols., 1869-1885), and gave an account of the history of the public records from 1837 to 1851 in his Memoirs of the Life of Henry, Lord Langdale (1852), Lord Langdale (1783-1851), master of the rolls from 1836 to 1851, being largely responsible for the erection of the new Record Office. Hardy took part in the controversy about the date of the Athanasian creed, writing The Athanasian Creed in connection with the Utrecht Psalter (1872); and Further Report on the Utrecht Psalter (1874).
His younger brother, Sir William Hardy (1807-1887), was also an antiquary. He entered the Record Office in 1823, leaving it in 1830 to become keeper of the records of the duchy of Lancaster. In 1868, when these records were presented by Queen Victoria to the nation, he returned to the Record Office as an assistant keeper, and in 1878 he succeeded his brother Sir Thomas as deputy-keeper, resigning in 1886. He died on the 17th of March 1887.
Sir W. Hardy edited Jehan de Waurin’s Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne (5 vols., 1864-1891); and he translated and edited the Charters of the Duchy of Lancaster (1845).
HARDY, SIR THOMAS MASTERMAN, Bart. (1769-1839), British vice-admiral, of the Portisham (Dorsetshire) family of Hardy, was born on the 5th of April 1769, and in 1781 began his career as a sailor. He became lieutenant in 1793, and in 1796, being then attached to the “Minerve” frigate, attracted the attention of Nelson by his gallant conduct. He continued to serve with distinction, and in 1798 was promoted to be captain of the “Vanguard,” Nelson’s flagship. In the “St George” he did valuable work before the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and his association with Nelson was crowned by his appointment in 1803 to the “Victory” as flag-captain, in which capacity he was engaged at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, witnessed Nelson’s will, and was in close attendance on him at his death. Hardy was created a baronet in 1806. He was then employed on the North American station, and later (1819), was made commodore and commander-in-chief on the South American station, where his able conduct came prominently into notice. In 1825 he became rear-admiral, and in December 1826 escorted the expeditionary force to Lisbon. In 1830 he was made first sea lord of the admiralty, being created G.C.B. in 1831. In 1834 he was appointed governor of Greenwich hospital, where thenceforward he devoted himself with conspicuous success to the charge of the naval pensioners; in 1837 he became vice-admiral. He died at Greenwich on the 20th of September 1839. In 1807 he had married Anne Louisa Emily, daughter of Sir George Cranfield Berkeley, under whom he had served on the North American station, and by her he had three daughters, the baronetcy becoming extinct.
See Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, ii. and iii.; Nicolas, Despatches of Lord Nelson; Broadley and Bartelot, The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar (1906), and Nelson’s Hardy, his Life, Letters and Friends (1909).
HARDYNG or HARDING, JOHN (1378-1465), English chronicler, was born in the north, and as a boy entered the service of Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur), with whom he was present at the battle of Shrewsbury (1403). He then passed into the service of Sir Robert Umfraville, under whom he was constable of Warkworth Castle, and served in the campaign of Agincourt in 1415 and in the sea-fight before Harfleur in 1416. In 1424 he was on a diplomatic mission at Rome, where at the instance of Cardinal Beaufort he consulted the chronicle of Trogus Pompeius. Umfraville, who died in 1436, had made Hardyng constable of Kyme in Lincolnshire, where he probably lived till his death about 1465. Hardyng was a man of antiquarian knowledge, and under Henry V. was employed to investigate the feudal relations of Scotland to the English crown. For this purpose he visited Scotland, at much expense and hardship. For his services he says that Henry V. promised him the manor of Geddington in Northamptonshire. Many years after, in 1439, he had a grant of £10 a year for similar services. In 1457 there is a record of the delivery of documents relating to Scotland by Hardyng to the earl of Shrewsbury, and his reward by a further pension of £20. It is clear that Hardyng was well acquainted with Scotland, and James I. is said to have offered him a bribe to surrender his papers. But the documents, which are still preserved in the Record Office, have been shown to be forgeries, and were probably manufactured by Hardyng himself. Hardyng spent many years on the composition of a rhyming chronicle of England. His services under the Percies and Umfravilles gave him opportunity to obtain much information of value for 15th century history. As literature the chronicle has no merit. It was written and rewritten to suit his various patrons. The original edition ending in 1436 had a Lancastrian bias and was dedicated to Henry VI. Afterwards he prepared a version for Richard, duke of York (d. 1460), and the chronicle in its final form was presented to Edward IV. after his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville in 1464.
The version of 1436 is preserved in Lansdowne MS. 204, and the best of the later versions in Harley MS. 661, both in the British Museum. Richard Grafton printed two editions in January 1543, which differ much from one another and from the now extant manuscripts. Stow, who was acquainted with a different version, censured Grafton on this point somewhat unjustly. Sir Henry Ellis published the longer version of Grafton with some additions from the Harley MS. in 1812.