Sir William Hardres, 4th Baronet (25 July 1686 – 7 July 1736) of Hardres Court,

Upper Hardres Upper Hardres is a village and civil parish in the City of Canterbury, in the district of Kent, England. The name of the Hardres family is perpetuated in the twin villages of Upper Hardres and Lower Hardres (pronounced 'hards'), on the Roman ...

, Kent was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1711 and 1735. Hardres was the son of Sir Thomas Hardres, 3rd Baronet and his wife Ursula Rooke, daughter of Sir William Rooke of Horton, Kent. He inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father on 23 February 1688. He was described as a person of great and ready wit, and in comfortable circumstances as 'a single gentleman with a £1,000 p.a. estate', and was seen as a man of great potential. Hardres was returned unopposed as Tory

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

at a by-election on 13 June 1711. In February 1712 he was involved in preparing a bill to facilitate the completion of a chapel of ease at Deal. At the

1713 British general election The 1713 British general election produced further gains for the governing Tory party. Since 1710 Robert Harley had led a government appointed after the downfall of the Whig Junto, attempting to pursue a moderate and non-controversial policy, b ...

, he was returned instead as MP for

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

. He was consulted on matters relating to Dover and the Cinque Ports and in March 1714, he and his fellow MP wrote a joint letter to Dover about presenting a petition for a bill to protect the port's fishing grounds. He retired at the

1715 British general election The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the 1707 merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In October 1714, soon afte ...

. Out of Parliament ha remained active as a Justice of the Peace. At the

1722 British general election The 1722 British general election elected members to serve in the House of Commons of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain. This was the fifth such election since the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Tha ...

, he stood for parliament at

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

but was defeated. He was returned as MP for Canterbury at the

1727 British general election The 1727 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was trigg ...

. He voted against the Government on the Hessians in 1730, which was his only recorded vote. He was returned again at the

1734 British general election The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...

but a petition was presented against him and he retired on 11 April 1735, possibly also because of gout. Hardres married Eliza Disher, widow of William Disher and daughter of Richard Thomas of Lamberhurst under a licence dated 26 March 1712. He died at Hardres Court aged 49 from what was called at the time "gout in the stomach" and was buried in the church of

. Arthur Collins ''The English Baronetage''
/ref> He and his wife had two sons and daughters, but only one son and one daughter survived him. His son William succeeded to the baronetcy.

References

1686 births 1736 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1727–1734 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Dover {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub