Vice-Adm. Sir Charles Hardy, MP

Family and Education b. c.1680, s. of Philip le Hardy, commr. of garrisons in Guernsey, by Mary, da. of Ezaias Filleul of St. Helier.1 m. Elizabeth, da. of Josiah Burchett, sec. of the Admiralty, 3s. 3da. Kntd. 26 Sept. 1732. suc. fa. 1705.

Offices Held

Volunteer R.N. 1695, lt. 1701, capt. 1709, r.-adm. 1742, v.-adm. 1743.

Elder Brother of Trinity House, 1722; ld. of Admiralty 1743-d.

Biography On the occurrence of two vacancies on the board of Admiralty at the end of 1743, Hardy, who had recently attained flag rank after nearly half a century’s service, was appointed to one of them. According to Horace Walpole (to Mann, 30 Nov. 1743), Carteret, whose follower, Lord Winchilsea was then first lord of the Admiralty, filled both vacancies without the knowledge of the Pelhams. Returned for Portsmouth on the Admiralty interest, he voted for the Hanoverians in January 1744, dying 27 Nov. that year.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754 Author: Paula Watson Notes 1. Jersey Armorial, 220.

Sir Charles Hardy worked his way through the highest ranks in the royal navy, earning peerage status and eventually becoming a vice-admiral as well as a lord commissioner of the admiralty. Sir Charles and his wife, Elizabeth Burchett, had six children, among them Josiah, the eldest son who served as royal governor of New Jersey, and Sir Charles, who for a brief time in the 1750s, during an interlude in a distinguished naval career, served as royal governor of New York.