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 knowlulge 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.
<p>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, Rotul-i litterarum patentium,
1201—1316 (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 etfinibu’s (1835), which deal also with the time of King John; the
Rotul-i 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, iz9~— 1216 (1837), giving with this work
an account of the structure of charters; the Liberate Rolls, Rotuli de
liberate ac de mis-is 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
Monunienta historica Britannica (1848); and Descriptive Catalogue of
Materiels 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 Ic Neve’s Fasti ecctesiae
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—f 885),
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). </p>
<p>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
i7th of March 1887. </p>
<p>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). </p>
<p>HARDY, SIR THOMAS MASTERMAN, Bart. (1769-1839), </p>
<p>British vice-admiral, of the Portisham (Dorsetshire) family of Hardy,
was born on the 5th of April 1769, and in 1781 began </p>