Thomas Hardy (3 March 1752 – 11 October 1832) was a British shoemaker who was an early Radical, and the founder, first Secretary, and Treasurer of the

London Corresponding Society The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associati ...

Early life

Thomas Hardy was born on 3 March 1752 in

Larbert Larbert ( gd, Lèirbert/Leth-pheairt, sco, Lairbert) is a small town in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town lies in the Forth Valley above the River Carron which flows from the west. Larbert is from the shoreline of the Firth of F ...

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling. It borders Perth ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, the son of a merchant seaman. His father died in 1760 at sea while Thomas was still a boy. He was sent to school by his maternal grandfather and later apprenticed to a shoemaker in

. He later worked in the

Carron Iron Works The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. After initial problems, the company was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom. Th ...

. As a young man, arrived in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

just before the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. On 21 May 1781 he was married at St-Martin-in-the-Fields church to Lydia Priest, the youngest daughter of a carpenter and builder from

Chesham Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...

, Buckinghamshire. The couple had six children, all of whom died in infancy. Lydia died in childbirth on 27 August 1794, her child (the sixth) being

stillborn Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The ter ...

: the cause may have been the injuries she had sustained when a loyalist "Church and King" mob attacked the Hardy home some weeks earlier. In 1791, Hardy opened his own boot and shoe shop at 9 Piccadilly, London.

Involvement with the London Corresponding Society

National Liberal Club Wikimedia UK portrait of Thomas Hardy

Around 1792, Hardy founded the

, starting out with just nine friends. However, they were soon joined by others, including

Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved a ...

. Two years later, on 12 May 1794, it had grown so powerful that he was arrested by the

King's Messenger The Corps of King's Messengers (or Corps of Queen's Messengers during the reign of a female monarch) are couriers employed by the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). They hand-carry secret and important documents to Br ...

, two

Bow Street Runner The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in 1 ...

s, the private secretary to Home Secretary Dundas, and others on Crown charges of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. It was during his imprisonment that Hardy's wife died, leaving him with an unfinished letter declaring her love for him. The charges were prosecuted with Sir John Scott leading for the Crown, and

William Garrow Sir William Garrow (13 April 1760 – 24 September 1840) was an English barrister, politician and judge known for his indirect reform of the advocacy system, which helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law nations to ...

among the prosecuting counsel; while Hardy was defended by Thomas Erskine. He was acquitted after nine days of testimony and debate, on

Guy Fawkes Day Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain, involving bonfires and fireworks displays. Its history begins with the e ...

, 1794.

Death and legacy

In later life Hardy ceased involvement in politics, and with the assistance of friends set up a small shoe shop in

Tavistock Street Tavistock Street is a street in the Covent Garden area of London which runs parallel to the Strand between Drury Lane and Southampton Street just south of the market piazza. History Initially, the street was a passageway between Wellington and C ...

, Covent Garden. In September 1797 he moved to a smaller establishment in Fleet Street. He died on 11 October 1832 at his home in Queen's Row, Pimlico, London. He was buried at Bunhill Fields burial ground, where a granite obelisk, designed by

John Woody Papworth John Woody Papworth (4 March 1820 – 6 July 1870) was an English architect, designer and antiquary. He is chiefly remembered for "Papworth's '' Ordinary''" (1874), a reference guide to British and Irish coats of arms arranged systematically acco ...

, was later erected in his memory.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Thomas 1752 births 1832 deaths Burials at Bunhill Fields English activists People from Larbert People acquitted of treason Shoemakers

Early life

Involvement with the London Corresponding Society

Death and legacy

See also

References

Sources