Charles Hardy

Admiral Sir Charles Hardy (Template:Circa – 18 May 1780) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1764 and 1780. He served as governor of New York from 1755 to 1757.

Early career

Born at Portsmouth, the son of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Hardy, Charles Hardy joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1731.<ref name=odnb>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>

He became a captain in the Royal Navy on 10 August 1741,<ref name=odnb/> around the age of 27. His first command was the 24-gun Template:HMS, stationed off the British Carolinas from January 1742 to February 1744.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1744 he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the British colony of Newfoundland, though there is no record of his visiting it during his term in office.<ref name=odnb/> In 1745 he took command of HMS Torrington, assisting in the protection of a convoy which brought reinforcements from Gibraltar to the newly captured fortress of Louisbourg.<ref name=odnb/>

He was knighted in 1755 and served as governor of the Colony of New York from 1755 to 1757<ref name=odnb/> (replaced by James Delancey). During his term he was made Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

Seven Years' War

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In 1757, under the command of Vice Admiral Francis Holburne, Hardy escorted Lord Loudoun and his army from New York to Halifax intending to attack Louisbourg, but the attack was called off when Louisbourg was found to be strongly defended by a French fleet. The next year, he was second in command under Admiral Edward Boscawen at the successful Siege of Louisbourg.<ref name=odnb/>

That autumn, he and James Wolfe attacked French posts around the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and destroyed all of the French fishing stations along the northern shores of what is now New Brunswick and along the Gaspé Peninsula. He also participated in Hawke's victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759.<ref name=odnb/>

Hardy served as the governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1771 to 1780. In 1778, he was made Admiral of the White. In 1779 he became Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet, remaining in that post until his death due to an apoplectic fit in May 1780.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Template:Cite wikisource</ref>

Member of Parliament

Hardy sat as Member of Parliament for Rochester from 1764 to 1768 and for Plymouth from 1771 to 1780.<ref>Template:Cite wikisource</ref>

Personal life

In 1749 Hardy married Mary Tate, who died the next year without issue and left him her home, Delapré Abbey; he sold it in 1764<ref>Frances Maria Peacock: A BUILDING HISTORY OF DELAPRE ABBEY 2017</ref> to Edward Bouverie for £22,000. Following his first wife's death, he married Catharine Stanyan,<ref name=odnb/> the daughter of Temple Stanyan. Through Catherine, he inherited Temple Stanyan's estate at Rawlins, Oxfordshire.

The couple had three sons and two daughters. Sir Charles Hardy died at Spithead. He bequeathed £3000 to each of the sons and £4000 to each daughter,<ref name=odnb/> as well as leaving his estate to his eldest son Temple Hardy. By Catharine's death in 1801, only Temple survived of the three sons. Hardy's brother Josiah was a merchant and the Governor of New Jersey from 1761 to 1763.

See also

• Governors of Newfoundland
• List of people of Newfoundland and Labrador

References

• Template:Cite DCB
• Template:Cite DNB

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