Thomas Hardy (political reformer)

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For other persons named Thomas Hardy, see Thomas Hardy (disambiguation).

Thomas Hardy (March 3, 1752–October 11, 1832) was an early Radical, the founder and also the first Secretary of the London Corresponding Society.

Thomas Hardy was born in 1752. His father died at sea while Thomas was still a boy. He was apprenticed to a shoe maker in Stirlingshire. He later worked in the Carron Iron Works. As a young man, he came to London just before the American Revolutionary War. He married.

[edit] Involvement with the London Corresponding Society

Around 1792, Thomas Hardy founded the L.C.S., starting out with just 9 friends. Two years later it had grown so powerful that he was arrested by the Crown on charges of high treason. While the charges were prosecuted, he was acquitted by a London Grand Jury after 9 days of testimony and debate. After this, he stopped involving himself in politics, running a small shoe shop in Covent Garden until 1815 and dying 17 years later in Pimlico.

[edit] References

  • E.P. Thompson, The making of the English working class; Vintage Books, NY, NY; 1963. (The source for the facts in original version of this article.)
  • Memoir of Thomas Hardy ... Written by Himself (1832)