Temple Hardy

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Captain Temple Hardy (d. c.1814) was a British naval officer active during the French Revolutionary Wars, perhaps most notable for his role in the capture of the Cape Colony in 1795.

He was a son of Admiral Charles Hardy, from whom he inherited a house at Rawlins, in Oxfordshire, and £3,000, on his father's death in 1780.^[1] Like his father, he entered the Royal Navy; he was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant on 4 November 1790, and to Commander on 1 June 1794.^[2]

In 1795, he commanded the sloop HMS Echo in the expedition to capture Cape Town. He commanded a battalion of sailors from the fleet at the Battle of Muizenberg, with Echo being commanded by a lieutenant from Monarch^[3]. He was mentioned in both the Army and Navy despatches:

[The engagement was] ... only remarkable for the steadiness displayed by the 1st battalion of seamen, commanded by Captain Hardy of the Echo, who ... received the enemy's fire without returning a shot, and manoeuvered with a regularity which would not have discredited veteran troops. — Major-General Craig.^[4]

I must more particularly beg leave to note the eminent services of Captains Hardy and Spranger ... you will perceive I have given command of the Princess to Captain Hardy, whose acknowledged merit will, I trust, justify my election, and recommend him to their Lordships' confirmation. — Admiral Elphinstone.^[5]

A Dutch Indiaman, the Willemstadt en Boetzlaar, which was captured in Table Bay after the engagement was taken into British service as HMS Princess, and as mentioned above briefly commanded by Hardy^[6]. He was promoted to Captain on November 24, 1795^[2]; this was the day before the despatches were in the London press, with the Admiralty presumably confirming Elphinstone's appointment on receipt.

In 1800 he commanded the Thunderer, a 74-gun third-rate, at Jamaica.^[7] In 1801, when his mother died, he was still resident at Rawlins and her only surviving son.^[8] He married Elizabeth Lucy Warre^[9] in 1800, in the parish of Westminster St James.^[10] By 1804 he and his wife were resident in Eastley End House in Thorpe, Surrey.^[11][12]

In May 1805 he was not assigned any command^[13], and in November 1806 had to turn down command of the third-rate Defence through illness.^[14] In 1811 he was in command of the third-rate Resolution, in ordinary at Portsmouth^[15], and it appears that later in the year he took command of Swiftsure.^[16]

The date of his death is not known, but his will was proven in London on June 9, 1814. The will, dated September 11 1811, left his possessions to his wife and to his two unmarried sisters, Clare and Rachael Emilia; minor valuables, and any outstanding prize money were left to his family, his executors, and Captains Blackwood and Otway. The executors, along with his wife, were the Rev. Francis Annesley, of Eydon in Northamptonshire; Captain John William Spranger; and William Groom of Lincoln's Inn Fields.^[17] Elizabeth outlived him by twenty years, dying on April 2 1835, aged 71.^[18] The naval officers in his will all became Rear-Admirals through seniority on June 4 1814, shortly after his death; if he had survived a few months longer, he would likely have attained this rank before his death.

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Note that it is difficult to trace Hardy's career in the Navy. He was serving at the same time as his far more renowned compatriot Sir Thomas Hardy, and contemporary records usually mentioned no more than "Captain Hardy" or "Captain T. Hardy", making it possible that many references to the one may have been confused with the other.