{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{short description|English naval officer}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Captain | name = Temple Hardy | birth_date = {{Birth date|1765|1|14|df=yes}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1814|3|29|1765|1|14|df=y}} | image = | caption = | birth_place = London | death_place = Exeter | burial_place = Exeter Cathedral | nickname = | allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{navy|United Kingdom}} | service_years = | rank = Captain | commands = | relations = Admiral Charles Hardy, father | unit = | battles = {{tree list}} * French Revolutionary Wars ** Battle of Muizenberg * Napoleonic Wars {{tree list/end}} | awards = }}
Captain '''Temple Hardy''' (14 January 1765 – 29 March 1814) was an English naval officer active during the French Revolutionary Wars. He commanded a battalion of sailors during the invasion of the Cape Colony in 1795.
==Early life== He was born on 14 January 1765, and christened "Charles Temple Hardy" on 11 February, at Westminster.<ref>''England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906''</ref> 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.<ref>"Hardy, Sir Charles, the younger (bap. 1717, d. 1780)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004</ref> He was possibly named after his maternal grandfather, the historian Temple Stanyan.
==Naval career== 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.<ref name="CSO">''Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815'', vol. 2. ed. David Syrett</ref> He commissioned the 16-gun floating battery {{HMS|Firm|1794|2}}, staying with her only until September.
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''.<ref>[http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Vol_I/P_300.html Naval History of Great Britain]</ref> 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.<ref>Despatches of Major-General Craig, 21 September 1795. Printed in ''The Times'', 25 November 1795</ref> ::''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.<ref>Despatches of Admiral Elphinstone, 23 September 1795. Printed in ''The Times'', 25 November 1795</ref>
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.<ref>[http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/PQ.htm Sailing ships of the Royal Navy, P-Q] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061009175628/http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/PQ.htm |date=9 October 2006 }}</ref> He was promoted to Captain on 24 November 1795;<ref name="CSO"/> this was the day before the despatches were in the London press, with the Admiralty presumably confirming Elphinstone's appointment on receipt.
In April 1797 he was in command of HMS ''Squirrel'', which convoyed a party of British commissioners to the United States of America to settle claims arising from the Treaty of London.<ref>p.219, [https://archive.org/details/porcupinesworks02cobbgoog ''Porcupine's Works'', v.5]. William Cobbett, 1801.</ref> On 12 May 1799 he was given command of the ''Thunderer'', a 74-gun third-rate, at Jamaica, and left the ship on 28 July 1800.<ref name="Goodwin">{{cite book|last=Goodwin|first=Peter|title=The Ships of Trafalgar: The British, French and Spanish Fleets, 21 October 1805|publisher=Chrysalis Books|year=2005|isbn=1-84486-015-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tEmCbStqqtwC}}</ref> He married Elizabeth Lucy Warre<ref>[http://stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ww/warre1.htm Warre genealogy list]</ref> on 9 December 1800, in the parish of Westminster St James.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7VEDAAAAYAAJ ''The Naval Chronicle'' (1801)], p.526; ''Portsmouth Telegraph'', 15 December 1800</ref> In 1801, when his mother died, he was still resident at Rawlins and her only surviving son.<ref>''Notes and Queries'', Number 28, 11 May 1850. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13684 Project Gutenberg etext]</ref> By 1804 he and his wife were resident in Eastley End House in Thorpe, Surrey.<ref>[http://www.southfarm.plus.com/Cartulary/PL_8.html Quitclaim regarding the Manor of Rawlins, 1804] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822072119/http://www.southfarm.plus.com/Cartulary/PL_8.html |date=22 August 2006 }}</ref><ref>"Captain Hardy" is mentioned briefly in Volume 3 of the Surrey edition of the Victoria County Histories, where he is apparently mistaken for T.M. Hardy. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43002 Online copy at british-history.ac.uk]</ref>
In May 1805 he was not assigned any command,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Navy_List_1805/Officers/Captains.html |title=Captains Serving in the Royal Navy – May 1805 |access-date=11 June 2006 |archive-date=10 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810120141/http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Navy_List_1805/Officers/Captains.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and in April 1806 was in command of the third-rate ''Ruby'', where he took three Prussian merchantmen as prizes.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16206|page=1647|date=3 December 1808}}</ref> He commanded the ''Euryalus'' for parts of 1806, in an acting capacity.<ref name="Goodwin"/> In November 1806, he had to turn down command of the third-rate ''Defence'' through illness.<ref>Letter from Thomas Grenville to the Marquis of Buckingham, 8 November 1806. Printed in vol. 4 of the ''Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George III'', ed. by the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. Hurst & Blackett, London, 1855</ref> In February 1810 he was appointed to command of the third-rate ''Resolution'',<ref>''Hampshire Telegraph'', 19 February 1810</ref> which saw service escorting convoys in the Danish Straits.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16427|page=1861|date=20 November 1810}}</ref> He remained in command when the ''Resolution'' was put in ordinary at Portsmouth in 1811.<ref>[http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1890 Resolution (70)] – ''Ships of the Old Navy'', Michael Philips.</ref> He was given command of ''Swiftsure'' on 20 August 1811, but in May 1812, in the Mediterranean, he was taken ill. He was removed from command, and discharged into Port Mahon hospital on 17 June.<ref name="Goodwin"/>
==Death== He died on 29 March 1814, at Exeter,<ref>p. ccccxlvi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4_5tAAAAMAAJ ''The Edinburgh Annual Register''], 1814.</ref> He was buried at Exeter Cathedral, and a monument to him was erected in the cathedral's South Transept.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Devon_2a.html | title=Devon 2 | publisher=Church Monuments Society | accessdate=2 June 2014}}</ref>
His will was proven in London on 9 June 1814. The will, dated 11 September 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.<ref>''Will of Temple Hardy, Captain in His Majesty's Navy'' at the National Archives, catalogue reference PROB 11/1557</ref> Elizabeth outlived him by twenty years, dying on 2 April 1835, aged 71.<ref>''The Gentleman's Magazine'', January–June 1835. vol.3 p.669</ref> The naval officers in his will all became Rear-Admirals through seniority on 4 June 1814, shortly after his death; if he had survived a few months longer, he would likely have attained this rank before his death.
==Notes== 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; see, for example, the entry in the ''Victoria County History''.
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Temple}} Category:1765 births Category:Royal Navy captains Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel Category:Military personnel from Westminster Category:1814 deaths