Thomas Hardy
Mayor of Oxford 1798/9
Thomas Hardy (1753–1829).was a mercer. He was admitted free in March 1780, and appears to have got married soon afterwards. On 26 September 1780 an advertisement for Hardy & Co appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal .
As soon as he gained his freedom he applied to the Mayor, John Phillips, to become his Child. Unfortunately Phillips forgot to mention this fact, but Hardy was given a Chamberlain’s place in November 1780 in compensation. He was appointed a Keykeeper in 1783.
Hardy had gone into partnership with Richard Cox (another future Mayor) by 22 September 1781, when an advertisement for T. Hardy & Cox, drapers, appears in Jackson’s Oxford Journal; but two years later the edition of 4 October 1783 announced that this partnership had been dissolved by mutual consent, and that the business would be continued by Hardy at the old shop. On 22 November 1783, however, Thomas Hardy, Mercer and Draper at the corner of High Street and Carfax, inserted an advertisement which included an attack on his nominal partner, Mr Cox, for making false representations to disparage his character. On 8 May 1784 Hardy took out an advertisement stating that he had just returned from London with new patterns of striped chintz and calico.
Hardy had eleven children:
- Elizabeth (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 20 February 1781)
- John (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 23 October 1782)
- William Thomas (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 6 April 1784)
- Robert I (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 2 February 1786/7, died on 30 January 1786/7, buried at St Martin’s on 2 February 1786/7))
- Robert II (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 26 August 1789)
- Thomas I (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 16 September 1790, died on 29 September 1790, buried at St Martin’s on 2 October 1790)
- Mary I (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 22 June 1792, died on 19 October 1792, buried at St Martin’s on 4 October 1792)
- Mary II (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 24 July 1793)
- Catherine (born September 1795, died on 4 October 1795, buried at St Martin’s on 29 September 1795)
- Thomas II (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 26 March 1797, died on 21 December 1797, buried at St Martin’s on 27 December 1797)
- Thomas III (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 19 February 1799)
There was a monument in the old St Martin’s Church to the memory of the five children who died in infancy that read as follows:
Thomas Hardy died the 21 Dec. 1797, aged 9 months. Rob. Hardy ob. 30 Jan. 1787, aged 1 year and 3 months. Thos. Hardy died 29 Sept. 1790. Mary Hardy died 19 Oct. 1792, aged 4 months. Catherine Hardy died 4 Oct 1795, aged 14 days
Hardy took on William Westall as an apprentice mercer in 1782. In January 1785 John Gee, who had been apprenticed to the mercer John Peck in 1780, was transferred to Hardy. Hardy took on another apprentice, John Cecil, in 1787.
Hardy was chosen as Junior Bailiff in 1789.
Hardy took on his two surviving sons, John and William Thomas, as apprentices in September 1796 and April 1799 respectively.
In April 1798 Hardy was chosen to be one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants, and in September 1798 was elected Mayor.
Hardy served on a number of committees, including one to inquire into people who were not free but were carrying on trades until 1794, and the Market Committee from 1800.
On 26 August 1800, with Hardy’s permission as she was only 19, his eldest daughter Elizabeth married Charles Agor Hunt of St Mary the Virgin parish at St Martin’s Church.
Hardy’s wife Elizabeth died at the age of 43 and was buried at St Martin’s Church in 1810.
Hardy moved to Eynsham at some point after his wife’s death, and died there at the age of 75. He was buried at Eynsham church on 21 June 1829.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 2623, 2710, 2805, 3099, and 3154
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 20 June 1829: Announcement of Hardy’s death