Admiral Sir Thomas Le Hardy
Admiral Sir Thomas Le Hardy
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Sir Thomas Le Hardy’s life shows how it was possible for a minor Jersey seigneur to become quite a grand person in early Georgian London, a Member of Parliament, a large landowner, and very rich, through a combination of good seamanship, ambition, patronage and luck.
Thomas Le Hardy was born in St Martin in 1666, the son of Jean Le Hardy, Solicitor-General (1634—1682), and Marie, daughter of Richard Dumaresq. It is likely that they lived at a house where Wrentham Hall now is, just downhill from St Martin’s Church. (There was once a ‘chapel de Hardy” to the west of the cemetery.)
In his Armorial of Jersey, Bertrand Payne describes it as ‘a fair specimen of a jersey house of the better kind, in olden time all the windows were secured by iron gratings. The doors, which were of immense thickness, were studded with huge nails, and the outer ones were double’.
According to Payne, it was in this house that Clement Le Hardy had sheltered Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who was on the run from Richard III. Shortly after Richmond defeated Richard at Bosworth in 1485 and became king as Henry VII, he appointed Clement Le Hardy as Bailiff. The house was demolished in the early 19th century.
It was in St Martin’s Church, nearby, that Thomas Le Hardy was baptised on 13 September 1666. Sir Thomas Morgan, the Governor, and Thomas Jermyn, the Lieut—Governor, were his godfathers. Nothing is known of his youth in Jersey. He must have inherited the house on the Wrentham Hall site, 'southern farms' called Les Fermes du Sucq, the Town Mills and the fiefs 0f La Fosse Astelle, La Hougue, Petit Rozel and L’Abbesse de Caen, when his father died in 1682.
Of Le Hardy’s early career, we know only that he was clerk to Admiral George Churchill, brother of the Duke of Marlborough, who got him appointed Lieutenant. He was at this time, said Stephen Martin, ‘so wholly ignorant, he did not know one rope from another; and what little experience he got, after he was made Captain, served only to make his ignorance more conspicuous’. But Martin’s father was a rival of Le Hardy’s and this assessment may be discounted.
It is possible that Le Hardy had become acting captain by 1689, when he was only 23, because
in that year the Jersey authorities sent ‘captains Hardy and Allen’ to London to inform against a
‘French papist’ called Bourke (perhaps du Bourg) and an English priest, called Philpot, who had
allegedly tried to deliver Jersey to the French.
War with France broke out on 1 July 1690, and Le Hardy was First Lieutenant on the St Andrew, commanded by his patron George Churchill, at the Battle of Cape Barfleur on 19 May 1692. He was also in action a few days later at the Battle of La Hougue, which lasted from 22 to 24 May.
It is likely that he dropped the ‘Le’ from his name at about this time, so we will call him Thomas Hardy from now on.
Guernsey Station 1693-1695
On 6 January 1693 Hardy was formally commissioned as captain of the Charles fireship, from which he was transferred in May to the Swallow prize. The Swallow was stationed at Guernsey to protect the Channel Islands from French privateers.
Hardy’s correspondence in the British Library shows him carrying letters from Ellis in Guernsey to Lord Hatton, the Governor, in London. Hardy was involved in the English bombardment of St Malo from 16—19 November.
In 1694 and 1695, Hardy moved between Jersey, Guernsey, Southampton and Portsmouth. On 24 July 1694 he sailed from Guernsey to Jersey with Mr Boulter, Officer of the Ordnance, who was to survey the Jersey garrisons. On 3 August he went from Guernsey with the yacht and several vessels under convoy, to Southampton, where he awaited orders for scrubbing bottoms of ships and for going to Portsmouth.
From Southampton he asked to be allowed to spend eight or ten days in Jersey ‘to make an end of my affairs there’. It is possible that he was able to wind up some of his Jersey affairs at this time, though the definitive break came in 1700.
In November he was in London, and in December back in Southampton. He then sailed for Jersey to convoy three vessels and fetch nine soldiers whom the King and Council wanted to question about their officers’ misdemeanours and about the inhabitants of Jersey trading with France.
On l January 1695 he arrived in Guernsey ‘where we rid upon life and death with a storm of wind at East North east chusing (sic) to trust to the mercy of the sea than the rock”, and then went back to Southampton with Lieut Foster. On 10 January he was still in Southampton, his ship having frozen up.
He went back and forth across the Channel acting on unspecified orders from Hatton, carrying letters and packets. On 14 February he convoyed three barques to Jersey, from where he took the Bailiff, Edouard de Carteret, to England, and again went back to Guernsey.
On 5 March he was in Southampton, awaiting orders from Hatton to take Sir Philip Carteret’s widow from Jersey, where she had been settling his estate, to England. He finally took her on 13 April; she had wanted to go straight to Southampton, but contrary wind forced them to put in at Guernsey. They arrived in Southampton on 16 April.
Hardy had sought leave to go to London to pass accounts ‘having received noe wages this two yeares’, and he finally got there on 26 April, bringing a ‘small bundle of knitt worke from Mrs Duhommett (probably Jane de Beauvoir, his aunt) directed for your Lady which I’ll deliver to Mr Keek for safe Keeping’.
On 9 May he was still in London, hoping to be back on board by 12 May, when he would bring the ship to Southampton and await Hatton’s further orders. By 11 June, he had received Colonel Mordaunt on board at Southampton and took him to Jersey by 13 June. [1]
Hardy stayed in Jersey for three weeks until 4 July, no doubt taking advantage of this lull to see his friends before he was transferred to the ‘bigger ship’ which he knew the Admiralty had in mind for him.
On 5 July 1695 the War resumed with an allied bombardment of St Malo. The fleet, under Lord Berkeley, battered against the Quinze Rock and set St Malo alight, which blazed Violently in several places.
Hardy, who was then convoying 19 vessels to Southampton, heard the booms go off ‘very plaine’. He was in Southampton for a month, leaving ten dozen bottles of red wine for Sir William Trumbull, a connection of his mother’s. He sought permission to fetch Mordaunt from Jersey as there was no other ship for the Jersey station, Berkeley having taken the Maidstone.
By 10 August 1695 he had been appointed captain of the Severn, a fourth—rate then being built at Blackwall, though in fact he never took command. He was presumably still in the Swallow when he went back to Guernsey and Jersey in August and September. On 21 September he handed over the Swallow to Captain Urry in Southampton, thus ending his two-year stint on the Guernsey Station. He wrote to thank Hatton for his ‘innumerable favours’.
War and peace with France, 1696-1702
Hardy now took the Pendennis, which had been launched at Deptford on 15 October 1695, and convoyed mast—ships from Norway.
He seems to have given some space to his relatives: his cousin, Charles (later Admiral Sir Charles Hardy) had already volunteered, and at some stage Philip Le Hardy, son of Philip, must have served on Pendennis, for he died aboard.
In July 1696 war broke out again, pitting England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the United Provinces against France, and it ended with the Peace of Ryswick (10 September 1697), as a result of which the Navy was greatly reduced, but Hardy escaped being put on half pay. From 1698—99, he captained the Deal Castle.
He then decided to dispose of some of his Jersey property. On 27 June 1700 he told the Lords Committee for Jersey and Guernsey at Hampton Court that he could not ‘look after his said estate, and little or no benefit accrues to him’.
The fief of L’Abesse de Caen and Les Fermes du Sucq were sold to Charles Dumaresq; and the fiefs of La Hogue and La Fosse Astelle to Charles Le Harder. At the same time he sold his house in St Martin, possibly to Josue Amy, of Le Catillon de Bas, and Town Mills to Charles Le Hardys snr and jnr and Charles Dumaresq.
By 1701 he was in command of the Coventry, and on 25 August he was being ordered by Admiral Sir George Rooke to Plymouth to get a spare topmast.
Cadiz 1702
War with France broke out again on 23 April 1702, over the succession to the Spanish throne. Hardy was now in command of the Pembroke.
It seems that Queen Anne, who had just come to the throne, and her husband Prince George of Denmark, Lord High Admiral, valued Hardy highly, but it was a stroke of pure luck which was about to advance his career dramatically.
George Rooke had been preparing an attack on Cadiz, and he sent Hardy to Guernsey to get intelligence of the enemy’s preparations and join the fleet as soon as possible. The great fleet left Torbay on about 22July and anchored off Cadiz on 12 August. Rooke landed the allied army in the Bay of Bulls nearby, and Pembroke and Lenox engaged Fort Santa Catalina; a score of soldiers and several boats were lost in the surf.
Ormonde landed from the yacht Isabella and, according to Hardy, he ‘had the same fate with the soldiers in half swimming ashore’. Sir Stafford Fairborne carried the squadron as far into the Bay as depth of water and need to keep out of range of forts allowed; Hardy stood on until Pembroke almost took ground and ‘sat upright in soft ooze’. Though the expedition had taken the town of Rota, the plan to take Cadiz was ‘not persevered in’.
The Battle of Vigo, 1702
A few months before, on 11 June, a treasure fleet of 22 Spanish and 34 French vessels, escorted by Admiral Chateau—Renault, had left Vera Cruz in Mexico. It proceeded to Havana, arriving on 24 July. Cadiz would have been its usual destination, but the fleet had heard of Rooke’s attack on Cadiz, and steered for northern Spain.
Rooke, on his way back to England on 21 September, found his fleet lacked water, and he sent Hardy, in the Pembroke, with the Eagle and the Stirling Castle, back to Lagos Bay in Portugal to protect the transports which stopped there for water. It was here that Hardy had his great stroke of luck.
The chaplain on the Pembroke was the Rev William de Beauvoir (1669—1723). He was the son of Peter de Beauvoir of Guernsey, and Anne Le Hardy, Thomas Hardy’s aunt. He had studied at Pembroke and All Souls, Oxford, before becoming Rector of St Saviour’s, Guernsey in 1692, and joining a frigate, presumably as a chaplain, in 1695.
De Beauvoir went ashore at Lagos with the Pembroke’s land officers. They could find no one they understood; but spying someone who looked promising, Beauvoir accosted him in French, which he spoke as readily as English. It was the French Consul, and Beauvoir passed some comments on the civility of the French nation; the Consul invited him home, where Beauvoir stayed for two nights.
The Consul, mistaking him for a Frenchman, boasted to him of the power of France, and hinted that Chateau—Renault was safe and not far off with the treasure galleons. On 24 September de Beauvoir fell in with a messenger, probably Don Josef Cisneros, from the Imperial Minister at Lisbon to the British fleet, and saw, it being a ‘moon shiny’ night, that he carried letters for the Prince of Hesse and Mr Methuen Jnr, although they had already gone to Lisbon.
The messenger boarded Pembroke and told them that Chateau—Renault was at Vigo with 30 men of war and 22 galleons — much the number that the French consul had mentioned. The messenger went to bed, and de Beauvoir woke his cousin Hardy to tell him the news.
The next day, Hardy took the initiative, leaving the transports behind without authority, and sailing forth on Pembroke. On awaking, the messenger produced the letters, and was surprised to learn that that Hesse and Methuen were not aboard; and he was put ashore near Cape St Vincent.
Hardy gave the news to Wishart (Eagle) and all the squadron. The captains agreed that Sir George Rooke should be told, and that as Hardy was the best sailor, and was master of the intelligence, he should tell Rooke. Wishart ordered Hardy to sail ahead and find the Fleet.
Hardy, had he not been ‘a very experienced sea officer and eminently zealous for HM'S Service’, would not have caught up with the Fleet. It had varied its course; Hardy’s masts were insecure, his ship leaky, and he and men reduced to two biscuits a day. He caught up with Rooke’S fleet off the northern point of Portugal, and told Ormonde the news. There was a council of war with the Dutch on the Royal Sovereign. Van Almonde wanted to turn south for Vigo and attack immediately though Rooke was reluctant; but it was agreed they should do so.
The Anglo-Dutch fleet was distracted by a strong gale, and did not enter Vigo Bay until 11 October. The Spanish treasure fleet had started unloading the silver some days before, and had almost completed the task. The Battle of Vigo began on 12 October, with Ormonde landing 2,000 men and taking Fort Randa. Hardy, who was in the squadron of Rear Admiral Graydon, was within the isles of Bayonne when action started, but was not involved in the battle further inside the Bay of Vigo.
In the event, Rooke managed to burst the boom and sink and burn the whole French squadron and Spanish silver fleet. Thirteen million pieces of eight fell into British hands. Rooke sent for Hardy, and asked him whether he knew that he was liable to be shot for leaving the transports at Lagos without permission. He replied: “I should be unworthy to hold my commission, if held my life as anything, when the interest of my country requires me to hazard it”.
Rooke then gave him the honour of carrying the news to Queen Anne, who knighted him, and presented him with 1,000 guineas, worth about £160,000 in modern terms [2]. Hardy was extremely lucky that, though not directly involved in the Battle of igo, he should have done so well out of it. Rooke left him out of the list to share in the Queen’s Bounty of the effects taken at Vigo, however, no doubt because he had not been in action. Hardy petitioned to be included, and in 1704 Rooke conceded that as Pembroke was within the isles of Bayonne when the battle started, or was as far up as any of the great ships before the action was over, he had no objection to adding her to the list.
An Order in Council of 12 February 1705 decreed that Pembroke should be added to the list of those who share in Vigo’s booty. Hardy’s good fortune also provoked envy. In 1704 Capt Francis Wivell petitioned the Lord High Treasurer saying that he had recaptured two prize ships at Vigo, the Dartmouth and the Tom Galleon, and claiming that he ought to have as big a reward as Hardy, who had only brought the news of Vigo and was not in the action.
The Channel and Tangier, 1702-1704
At about this time, Hardy had retaken the Dutch ship, Jigffrow Hellena, laden with curacao for Amsterdam, which had been in enemy hands for 28 hours. He successfully petitioned for five eights of her salvage money for himself and crew. They were awarded £688 6s ½d, worth about £100,000 in modern terms. [3]
Later in 1702, Sir Thomas Hardy, as he then was, set out from Spithead and cruised the Channel with Pembroke and five other men of war, and sailed west from the Downs to chase French capers ‘which swarm in the channel'.
In January 1703 he was given command of the Bedford. On 8 July he took a French West Indiaman bound for La Rochelle, probably with a cargo of sugar. At about this time 11 seamen had deserted Pembroke, and got on board the Guernsey privateer Captain Brock, and thence to a privateer, the aptly named Runner; Captain Robert Slowley.
In about July 1703 Hardy was ordered to take Bedford (with his old ship Pembroke, and Montague and Lizard, and call at Lagos, Portugal, for intelligence. He was in the fleet of Sir Cloudesley Shovell and Almonde. He ‘spoke’ a Genoese ship, which said that the French had 40 to 50 ships in the Mediterranean, which may or may not have been true, as the Genoese were not trusted.
The fleet anchored in Tangier Road, and the Alcaide of Tangier sent Ahmed ben Ahmed Cardenash, agent for the King of Fez in England, to offer refreshments to Shovell. The Alcaide, professing great esteem for the English, made presents to them and arranged a skirmish on the shore of 400 horsemen.
Shovell was forced to return, and he ordered Hardy, with Somerset replacing Montague, to stretch ahead and, having put the articles of peace with the Emperor of Morocco at Tangier, to return to England if he missed the fleet.
In December 1703 the Lord High Admiral ordered Hardy at Plymouth to prepare for four months at sea, and join Rooke off Plymouth or Spithead. Bedford had sprung her mainmast, and this may have delayed her departure.
Capture of Gibraltar and the Battle of Malaga, 1704
Rooke left England on 12 February 1704 with the King of Spain in his flagship. He sailed out of the Lisbon River with Bedford and Antelope following; Bedford was involved in a chase which took some Spanish prizes, probably Porto Coeli and Santa Teresa. Bedford was in action on 12 March 1704.
Hardy was still with Rooke at Lisbon on 25 April. Rooke held a council of war on Royal Catherine, preparing an attack on Gibraltar. On 21 July, the Anglo—Dutch Fleet anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar. Hardy, with 440 men on the Bedford, took part when Rooke and Shovell captured the Rock on 24 July.
Hardy was involved in the Battle of Malaga on 13 August, losing 12 men killed and 51 wounded. Late in August he returned home.
In December 1704, he was appointed to the Kent. On 28 February 1705, he sailed with the Kent, Oxford and Eagle, for Lisbon with reinforcements to enable Leake to baffle the designs of the enemy against that place, but he was becalmed and anchored at St Helen’s. He finally arrived at Gibraltar on 28 March.
The Channel, 1705—1707
In October 1705 Hardy was cruising between Plymouth, Ireland and the Downs. In 1706 he was in Barcelona, cleaning his ship, and in March he got to Plymouth, where he scrubbed and burnt grass and barnacles off its bottom, which was worm—eaten although ‘graved with ardsoif composition’. In April 1706 he set out from Plymouth with Fairborne.
Kent and others went on to La Rochelle, Fairborne on the Charente—Rochefort expedition. Hardy was now ordered back into the Channel to support Fairborne’s siege of Ostend, which capitulated on 25 June. In October he was ordered to the Soundings, to intercept enemy frigates and privateers, and to victual his two best frigates and send them to meet East India ships and give them protection.
The Squadron also had the task of shepherding outward-bound fleets, reinforcing the convoys until the fleets were far enough to the westward to be reasonably safe from attack. Hardy took many prizes, including a ‘mischievous privateer of 20 guns’.
He now sailed with five men—of—war (Kent, Swiftsure, Worcester, Norfolk and Charles Galley, which all returned in five or six weeks, and soon after sailed for Ireland, to continue protection ofthe East India fleet. He captured a French privateer of Bordeaux, with sugar, cocoa, and indigo and met the man—of—war, Dover, Capt Matthews, about 13 leagues west of Scilly, which had lost its convoys.
In December 1706 he was told to take his whole force to Cork to bring the East Indiamen to England. Off Kinsale, he ordered Captain Cock, who commanded the convoy Of East Indiamen, to join him in Cork Harbour. Hardy arrived in Cork in January 1707, with three rich French prizes. He put to sea on 14 January with 50 merchant ships, but wind forced him back.
On 5 February he sailed again, but was forced back into Milford Haven, from where he sailed again with six men—of—war convoying 53 merchant ships. He did not dare put through the gap between Cornwall and Scilly, so he went back to Cork. He went out again on the 18th, except for a ship laden with masts, which ran aground, the master being unwell; but was forced back yet again by the 21st.
By 3 March he was off the Isle of Wight, with 63 merchant ships, several so damaged that the men—of-war were obliged to take them in tow. In the evening the west by south wind blew hard and he was obliged, as soon as it was light, to make for the Downs, where he arrived on 4 March. He turned back for Plymouth and retook a merchant ship off Topsham which was lost again, then continued to Hamoze. He would later be accused of passing by Spithead, with ships from India, without calling for the trade.
War with France, June 1707
In June Hardy was in Spithead, under orders to take the Portugal trade under convoy, some 30 ships carrying victuals and much needed cannon ball for the main fleet, then about to attack Toulon.
would have eleven sail of the line and two small frigates; one line—of-battle—ship was to leave the fleet in the Bay of Biscay to see the Bilbao trade into harbour; four would go north again with Hardy on reaching Cape Finisterre; the rest would go on to Lisbon, detaching ships with the trade for Vianna, Oporto and other places on the way, unless Hardy had news of the French that made him judge it necessary to go farther himself at full strength.
From Lisbon two of the line—of—battle—ships would go on with the store—ships into the Mediterranean unless Sir Cloudesley Shovell sent convoys for them from the main fleet. While Hardy was making ready, the Admiralty learned that the French Admiral Duguay Trouin had come out.
The Lord High Admiral then decided to send the American trade with Hardy who should ‘carry them along with him as far as his and their way lies together.’ The trade and store—ships would leave him 120 leagues from Land’s End and go on with Kirkton of the Defiance, while Hardy stayed in the Soundings to cover the homeward bound trade from Lisbon.
Trade for North America would leave Kirkton off the Tagus to cross the Atlantic. Hardy was told that if he got sight of Duguay Trouin between Spithead and the Soundings to detach Kirkton on his voyage to Lisbon and ‘give chase to and destroy’ Duguay; but if he could not come up with them, to continue cruising in the Soundings for security of the outward and homeward bound trade.
Hardy sailed from Spithead to St Helen’s on 8 July with his squadron and 205 merchant ships. He tried to set out, but was returned to St Helen’s by contrary winds and could not get out of the Channel.
He set out again, and on 3 August he passed Dartmouth going west, but his fleet was again forced back, this time to Torbay and Plymouth. He sailed for Plymouth, but was forced back into Torbay a second time. The fleet, including the American trade, sailed from Torbay on 21 August, stopping for three hours outside Plymouth to take on beer. On 22 August he set sail from Plymouth, leaving the American trade behind.
On 24 August, he passed Falmouth and sailed six leagues west of the Lizard. The next day he gave out new lines of battle, with 209 sail in company. They gained and lost a few ships, but were never fewer than 200. By 27 August he was 93 leagues south—west of the Lizard.
Captain Kirkton in the Defiance, two leagues in the rear, signalled that he had seen six sail, which Hardy took to be Duguay Trouin’s. Hardy in Kent brought up the rear, with the six ships gaining on him; he gave signals for the Lisbon fleet to go on while he tried to chase the enemy, but there was not enough wind to do so.
They pursued and later made signal for line of battle, but got lost as night approached. All 14 captains agreed that there was no purpose in pursuing the hostile ships, and that they should keep the fleet company until they got at least 120 leagues from Land’s End.
Only by 3l August was he able to accompany Lisbon ships as far on their way as directed, and let them go on. He then distributed beer evenly. On the way back in early September he cruised his men-of-war about two to three miles apart to lengthen the squadron’s vision in thick and blowing weather.
Occasionally they encountered French ships which got away ‘they being clean and we foul’, or when they used oars during a lull, or in thick fog. By 6 September Kent was 50 leagues from Scilly. On the evening of 10 September, Hardy sighted a French squadron and its prizes about 100 miles west of Scilly, and five leagues from him. He thought it must be Duguay, but it was Forbin.
Hardy readied for battle, but lost them. About six leagues from Scilly, one of his men—of—war, the Mary found the Angel Gabriel store—ship which had been taken from Kirkton on the way to Lisbon and retaken by a Dutch privateer, Hardy took her back to Plymouth with the whole squadron, as her stores were of great consequence, until another opportunity could be found to proceed to the designed port.
It was not clear whether Duguay Trouin was at sea or in Brest. Finally, Hardy on Kent, with Northumberland, Devonshire, Mary, Auguste, Nassau and Angel Gabriel got into Torbay to revictual.
He was told to go out without a moment’s loss of time to scour the seas for French men—of—war and privateers, but the merchants had already persuaded the Admiralty to give them the protection of a fresh squadron, fearing that Hardy would not be back in time.
Hardy reported that Kent was growing weaker and weaker with each cruise; and he joined his few whole ships, including Mary and Tartar to the new squadron under John Evans in the Barford (70) which sailed from Plymouth in the last week of September, but the squadron got caught in a gale and Evans turned back on 2 October. Captain Francis Hosier took over.
Hardy was now in Plymouth refitting and victualling Kent. In November, he went out with the Dover (Captain Matthews), under command of Capt Evans (Barford), and took the Aime. On 29 December, Hardy took the Moroccan ambassador, Ahmed ben Ahmed Cardenash, and his retinue from Plymouth to Spithead, where he would tranship on Nassau for Gibraltar.
Court Martial 1707
On 10 October, Hardy went on trial for not chasing the French ships. The court martial was set up on the Albemarle in Portsmouth Harbour. Hardy had wanted Roffey, Strickland, Watkins and Walton, but instead Captains Hovenden Walker, Stephen Martin and others sat, with Vice— Admiral Leake as president.
The charge was that Hardy had not chased the French ships, in spite of the Lord High Admiral’s orders of 2 July. The Court martial agreed that Hardy was right to give up an uncertain chase, which might have allowed the enemy to slip by, and to proceed with Kirkton out to 120 leagues at sea.
On 15 November, the proceedings of the Court martial were read before the Lord High Admiral, and flag officers Admiral Churchill, Sir Stafford Fairborne, Sir John Leake, Sir George Byng, Sir John Norris and Sir James Wishart. All agreed the sentence of the Court martial. But the charge was taken up by those who wished to attack the Admiralty; Hardy, as protege 0f Churchill, made a good target.
The verdict of the Court martial was therefore referred to the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which appointed a Parliamentary Committee of the whole on the state of the Navy. This reported that Hardy ‘had fully justified himself and done his duty in every respect’.
But Hardy still had enemies who would not let the matter rest. Stephen Martin Snr had hoped to become a first captain, but he was only made second captain under Hardy. His son wrote: ‘Sir Thomas was disagreeable to [him] and most unqualified for that post.
To these disqualifications were added the most unhappy disposition, wholly composed of pride and ill—nature, which he showed by his outward behaviour and by a malicious grin ever upon his countenance. It was impossible to live a day with him without observing many ill—natured actions, ever being full of flaring taunts not to be endured by men of spirit.
Add to all this he was a coward, having no sense of honour, though he received the honour of a knighthood, not for good behaviour but for being the messenger of our success at Vigo’.
Neither were the merchants satisfied. In January 1708, Sir Thomas was ordered to attend the Lords committee appointed to consider their petition. He was thus a victim of treble jeopardy. He showed that his orders warranted refusal of convoy.
He might, by attacking the enemy, have put the merchant ships in danger. Hardy was not only acquitted, but acquired greater honour that he could have done by merely convoying the fleet, wrote Campbell. The committee also examined the complaint of William Jesse, master of a Canary ship, that he had been chased into Portsmouth by three privateers, but that Hardy had been "very unkind’ to him and had refused to convoy him from Plymouth to Portsmouth in January 1708.
Hardy countered that he had no orders to do so, nor could he. He rehearsed the history of his taking the Moroccan Ambassador to the Nassau. His instructions were to avoid caring for merchantmen, or call at Dartmouth or Weymouth.The Committee exonerated Hardy.
In 1708 Hardy was appointed to the Royal Sovereign. In January he was ordered to accompany Leake to the Mediterranean, as first captain, at the express solicitation of Admiral Churchill. He was in London to equip himself for the voyage, but by the time he arrived in Exeter, he learned that Leake had sailed.
Leake considered that Hardy ‘took so much time to equip himself for the voyage, as if he intended to follow me to the Mediterranean and have the honour and benefit of being first captain without the trouble, presuming too much upon the interest that made him so; very inconsistent with the duty he owed the publick service, and the respect due to the admiral who appointed him; at the same time, when he had most occasion for him.’
But he boarded the Barford at Plymouth, and managed to arrive in Lisbon before the Fleet.
In May 1708 there was a Council of War: the Admiral, Hardy, Norris, Whitaker, Wassenaer, and two of the Dutch. They resolved to take some of the Fleet to Vado to transport the Queen of Spain, and on 18 May Hardy was sent to wait on her. He received her on board at Genoa on 30 July, when the British ships and those of the Republic gave a 21—gun salute. Hardy returned to England in October. In June 1709 he was transferred to the Russell and was in the Channel until July.
First retirement 1709—1711
Between July 1709 and the beginning of 711 Hardy does not appear to have had any command. As Rear Admiral of the Fleet, he was paid at 17s 6d for 408 days to Christmas 1708; he remained on half pay until he got a new commission. This was his opportunity to spend time in domestic and land—based activities.
In about 1708 he had married Constance, daughter of Colonel Henry Hook, Lieut—GoVernor of Plymouth and, in 1710, he bought a house on the north side of Pall Mall, with an opening on to the south side of St James’s Square, with coach house, stables, chariot and pair of stone horses.
In November his son Thomas was born. Sir Thomas Hardy became a Governor of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, an Elder Brother of Trinity House (in place of Admiral George Churchill, who had died), one of the two MPs for Weymouth, and JP for the City of Westminster and the County of Middlesex.
In 1711 the election of Betts and Littleton for the seats of Weymouth was declared void as they had paid voters, and Hardy was returned as an MP in the Tory interest in the ensuing by—election.
Back on active service 1711-1715
On 29 January 1711 Hardy was promoted Rear—Admiral of the Blue Squadron, and on 2 May he hoisted the blue flag on the mizzen topmast—head of the Canterbury, Captain Salmon Morrice, in the Channel.
He had been given the task of blockading the privateers in Dunkirk. The fleet had 36 sail, and was commanded by Hardy, Leake (Warspight) and Sir Edward Whitaker.
On 15 May Leake ordered Hardy with ten sail to observe the enemy at Dunkirk; he returned to Deal on 21 May, sailed again to Dunkirk where he was fired on. Hardy remained in the Downs throughout June and July, sailing north to Harwich and Yarmouth in August.
He sailed south with 13 ships for Solebay as the Admiralty had received intelligence that Du Casse had left Dunkirk with four large ships. He and the squadron then sailed north, escorting six ships bound for Russia, as far as Shetland.
Returning to the Downs, he was told to proceed westwards in quest of Du Casse; by the end of the year Hardy was still looking for him, but he was apparently still in Martinique.
His pay as Rear Admiral of the Blue since 27 January had been £593 5s.
In January 1712 he sailed with five men—of—war 30-40 leagues west of Cap Finisterre. In February he took the Peter galley of St Domingo, and a privateer from Dunkirk. Du Casse had arrived at the Groyne on 7 February with one of Duguay Trouin’s ships in tow. Hardy tried to intercept them off Brest, where they arrived on 21 March. He captured a French ship with 150 tuns of salt for Newfoundland, and took it into Falmouth.
In May and June Hardy was cruising from Plymouth. On 16 August he arrived in Plymouth on the Kent with three French prizes captured off Ushant, the Griffin, bound for Vera Cruz, L’Inromparabe, bound for Martinique, and the St Esprit.
The Griffin was commanded by the Chevalier d’Aire, who said that he had received letters from Paris saying he could soon expect a Queen of England’s Pass; but that he was advised not to lose opportunity of catching wind.
He was told that since he had no pass, he was a prize; and he submitted. Another ship, Adventure, bound for Newfoundland, did have a Queens Pass and was allowed to proceed. The St Esprit blew up, but the crew were saved by British boats, and two other ships, the Tartan and Henry escaped.
Hardy had not realised that England and France were in truce, and that none of the ships should have been made prizes. This led to some diplomatic activity. In September, Secretary of State Bolingbroke recorded that he had compounded the Griffin for £35,000.
He thought the ship was plainly a prize and that the Queen’s Pass might have been one of those he delivered at Fontainebleau four days after Hardy took the Griffin, though Gaultier was ready to swear that he received it some months before.
The English complained that they sent passes more quickly than the French, so that Hardy’s had to be released while several British ships were made prizes by the French. The sum of £35,000 was ‘far short of what they were entitled to receive’. But Bolingbroke was well disposed towards the French, and the English and French ‘stood in need of each other’s indulgence’.
On 7 March 1713 Hardy, seemingly back on the Canterbury, went with Sir Edward Whitaker and Leake to the Baltic, his last voyage in this protracted war, which was ended by the Treaty of Utrecht on 31 March.
Second retirement 1713—1714
During this time Hardy tried to maintain his parliamentary and public activities. He was, it is true, barred from some vacant post owing to his absence, but he was sworn in as Nether Warden of Trinity House.
In March, he was again defeated for the Weymouth seat owing to the bribery and corruption of his opponents, but seated again on petition. He voted for the French Commerce Bill on 18 June.
In 1714 he and others were given leave to bring in a Bill to reward ‘such persons as should discover the Longitude at sea’. The prize was eventually, but only in part, awarded to John Harrison.
He acquired the Manor of Hercies in Hillingdon. He was one of 30 candidates for Directorship of South Sea Company in the election on 3 February 1714.
On 1 August 1714 George I succeeded Anne. Hardy was given the command at Plymouth to equip the squadron against any attempt in favour ofthe Old Pretender. He was MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis a second time, from 1714—15.
The Baltic 1715
In 1715 Hardy was second—in—command, under Admiral of the Blue, Sir John Norris, of the fleet sent to the Baltic to join Russia, Denmark and Holland against Sweden. The Swedes had seized several English merchant vessels under pretence they were assisting Russia with arms.
Hardy was flag—officer on the Norfolk, and had eight ships of the line, the Mermaid frigate and Drake sloop.
Hardy and Norris sailed from the Nore on 18 May.They found the Dutch squadron, and in a conference on Norris’s ship, the Cumberland, resolved to convoy English and Dutch merchantmen to their respective ports, which was done by June. They did not find the Swedish fleet, which had returned to Calscroon, and as the season was too advanced for naval operations, returned to England in November, encountering a violent storm off Copenhagen.
On his return from the Baltic. Hardy was dismissed, as were all officers suspected of sympathy with the Jacobite rising of 1715.
Third retirement 1715—1718
Little is known about his activities during his third retirement. In 1716 his daughter Charlotte was born; in 1717 he and others inherited lands and messages from Dame Elizabeth Carteret; in 1718 he subscribed to Prior’s Poems on Several Occasions.
Final service 1718
A manuscript account says that Hardy was reinstated in 1718, and promoted Admiral of the Red. On 30 May 1719 he was sent to the Mediterranean with four men—of—war under Sir George Bing to take care of homeward trade from the Straits of Gibraltar.This must mark the end of his naval career.
Final retirement 1719-1732
Of his private life almost nothing is known. In 1720 his wife died and Elizabeth Brangwin, spinster, moved in as housekeeper. The Fortescue Papers show that that he knew Thomas Pitt (1653—1726), former Governor of Fort St George, Madras, in India, and his son, Robert, who lived opposite him in Pall Mall, and was father of William Pitt the Elder 1st Earl of Chatham, 1708—68).
His correspondence with Robert Pitt is mostly about public affairs: the Oakhampton Election, a supply vote by Parliament, an expedition to the Baltic. In 1730 his house in Pall Mall was damaged by fire. It was probably then that he obtained permission to deposit materials on the south side of St James’s Square during the rebuilding of his house.
He continued as an Elder of Trinity House, becoming Master in 1729. He was a Governor of Christ’s Hospital, briefly First Commissioner of the Sewers of the Upper Liberty of Westminster, possibly steward of Bridewell and Bethlem hospitals, and a manager of the Sun Fire Office.
He was probably a director of the South Sea Company, for when the Bubble burst in 1721, Hardy and others went to South Sea House to demand the General Court to petition the House of Commons for remission of the £2 two million owing to the public.
He also had shares in the Casquet lighthouse. In 1722 Hardy and Charles Leigh (with 16 votes each) topped the poll at Lestwithiel, Cornwall, but the seats were given to Hartington and Stanhope, who had only gained five votes each. There was no determination of the case, so Hardy cannot have taken his seat.
It seems likely that he had bought the Manor of Les Sts Germains with the fief of Hamonets in Jersey from his nephew, Edouard Le Hardy (1690—1724), a Commissioner in the African Company. The Manor had been rebuilt by Edouard’s father, Philip Le Hardy (1651—1705).
In 1723 Hardy sold them to the French Quaker, Jean Francois Chouét de Vaumorel, father of his great—niece’s husband. In England he acquired property, buying the Upper Manor at Over Itchington, Warwick in 1719, Herside Reyfeild (Ryefeild), Hillingdon, and Hanwell Farms, Itchingham, both in Middlesex; and stables in Robb Mays Mews.
In 1732 he fell dangerously ill, and on 16 August, he died at Hampstead. His body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber and was interred ‘with great pomp and solemnity’ in Westminster Abbey, next to that of his wife, who had died in 1720. And near that of his ‘intimate friend’ Admiral Churchill, who had given him his first break at sea.
He left three children: Thomas, Charlotte and Constance. Thomas died intestate and with no heirs. Charlotte, born in 1716, was ‘a young lady of fine accomplishments and considerable fortune’ who married Colonel John Lee of the Footguards. She died in child—bed in 1740
Just before Hardy died, Constance had married George Chamberlayne, later Denton, MP for Buckingham. She also brought a fortune, of £10,000.Their daughter Elizabeth married Wenman Coke, and their son was Thomas Coke of Holkham, later Earl of Leicester.
In his will Sir Thomas also mentioned his sisters, Mary Coste, Elizabeth Janvrin, and Rachel Hue; his nephews Charles Hue, and John Le Hardy, Attorney—General (1695—1751);Jane Wall, godmother of his daughter Charlotte; and Elizabeth Brangwin his housekeeper. The house in Pall Mall was taken by the Dowager Duchess of Bedford, who married William, 3rd Earl of Jersey, in 1733.
In 1733 Cheere erected a ‘curious’ monument to Hardy which is still on the south side of the West Door of Westminster Abbey; its long inscription is reproduced in Payne’s Armorial. The Monument was drawn by Gravelot and engraved for J Dart’s History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church Qf St Peter of Westminster, 1742.There are three or four three—quarter—length portraits of him, by or after Michael Dahl.
Sir Thomas Hardy acquired Vice—Admiral John Benbow’s copy of The Description and Use of the sector, cross—strife and other instruments by Edmund Gunter, 1636, and that from him it passed through various naval hands, coming to Nelson in 1777, and Nelson’s Hardy (Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, our Sir Thomas’s distant cousin) in 1805, the year of Trafalgar.
Notes and references
I am grateful to my cousin, Rear—Admiral John Myres, for help with nautical terms
- Family tree
- Sir Thomas Le Hardy, another biography
