Sir Thomas, thus fully exonerated from blame, continued to command the Kent till the beginning of the year 1708, when he was appointed first captain to Sir John Leake, who had just before been invested with the chief command of the fleet bound to the Mediterranean.* He was indebted for this appointment, according to the writer of Sir John Leake's life, to the express solicitation of Admiral Churchill. The proceedings of the Mediterranean fleet are fully related in our biographical memoir of its commander, + and it is here unnecessary to repeat them.

In the month of October following, Sir Thomas Hardy returned to England; and, from that time, till the beginning of 1711, he does not appear to have had any command. He was then promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue; and, having hoisted his flag on board the Canterbury, of 60 guns, he was sent with four small ships of the line, and as many frigates, to blockade the port of Dunkirk. Notwithstanding his vigilance, however, several ships found means to escape, and others to enter that harbour. This was chiefly owing to a strong southerly, and south-west wind, which obliged him to quit his station, and to put into Yarmouth Roads. In the succeeding year, whilst cruising in the soundings, he captured six large French merchant ships, outward bound, which were richly laden; but, although they were taken before any orders had been issued for a suspension of hostilities, the administration thought proper to give them up, allotting to the captors a sum of money far inferior to their value.

The peace of Ryswic taking place almost immediately after this event, Sir Thomas Hardy struck his flag, and held no other appointment during the reign of Queen Anne.

At the accession of George the First, he was invested with the command at Plymouth, for the purpose of forwarding the equipment of a squadron, lest any formidable attempt should be made in favour of the Pretender.

In the spring of 1715, Sir Thomas Hardy, as second in command under Sir John Norris, sailed from the Nore, with a strong squadron, to join the fleets of Russia, Denmark, and Holland, in

* Vide NAVAL CHRONICLE, Vol. XVI. page 466.
+ Ibid.

the Baltic, against the Swedes, who had seized and confiscated several English merchant vessels, under the pretence that they were assisting the Russians, with whom the Swedes were then at war, with arms and warlike stores. The confederates met, and remained in the Baltic till the middle of November; but the Swedes very prudently kept out of their reach; and, the season being too far advanced for any farther naval operations in those seas, the English squadron returned home.

According to some manuscript accounts, mentioned by Charnock, Sir Thomas Hardy was, in the following year, dismissed from the service; but is said to have been afterwards restored to his rank, and to have been made vice-admiral of the red. No cause whatever is assigned for the alleged dismission; nor, were it not from several concurrent testimonies, would the statement, from its improbability, seem to be deserving of credit. However, Sir Thomas does not appear, after this time, to have been called into actual service. He died in retirement, in the month of August, 1732.

The earliest notice that we find of Sir Charles Hardy, the son of the preceding, is that, on the 28th of June, 1709, he was made captain of the Dunwich, and stationed as a cruiser in the German Ocean. In 1710, he captured a privateer, which had done considerable mischief amongst the coasting trade; and was afterwards sent to the West Indies, with the squadron under the command of Commodore Lyttleton. From this time, until 1718, we find no mention made of him; though he is supposed to have held several intermediate appointments. In the year just stated, he commanded the Guernsey, of 50 guns, one of the squadron sent to the Baltic under Sir John Norris, to act in conjunction with the Danish fleet against the Swedes. He returned to England, with the squadron, at the latter end of the year; and, in 1720, he was captain of the Defiance, a fourth rate, of 60 guns, one of the fleet again sent upon the same service, and under the same commander. At the end of the season, Sir John Norris returned home, and Captain Hardy quitted the Defiance.

We are again ignorant of the services on which he was employed, till the year 1726, when he was appointed to the Grafton, of 70 guns, one of the squadron which was intended to be sent to the

Baltic, under the orders of Sir Charles Wager, to overawe the Czarina; but, from illness, or some other cause, he resigned the command of the Grafton, before the squadron sailed.—He was next appointed to the Stirling Castle, of 70 guns, and ordered for the Mediterranean, where he served, during the two succeeding years, under Admiral Hopson and Sir Charles Wager; the latter having been, in the month of January, 1727, sent out with a rein. forcement, and to take upon him the command, in consequence of the attack menaced by the Spaniards on the fortress of Gibraltar. The events of this expedition were unimportant.

Captain Hardy returned to England, with Sir Charles Wager, in the month of April, 1728; from which time, till the 6th of April, 1742, when he was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, the only command that he is known to have had, was that of the Royal Caroline yacht. Just before his promotion, he was invested with the honour of knighthood. On the 7th of December, 1743, he was made a vice-admiral; and, on the 13th of the same month, he was appointed to be one of the commissioners of the Admiralty.

Early in 1744, Sir Charles commanded a division of the Channel fleet, under Sir John Norris; after which, in the same year, we find the following statement respecting him, in Entick's Naval History:

"The Mediterranean fieet, under the command of Admiral Matthews, being in the utmost necessity for stores and provisions, a considerable number of store-ships were ordered to be convoyed there by Sir Charles Hardy, with a squadron of eleven ships of the line, and a bomb-ketch. The viceadmiral, with the store-ships, set sail from St. Helens on the 18th of April, and conducted his convoy to Lisbon, where he was detained for a considerable time; for the French received early information of the stores' to be convoyed to the Mediterranean; and as the detention of these supplies would prevent Admiral Matthews from attempting any thing, the French were determined to intercept or delay the passage of Vice-Admiral Hardy. Accordingly the Brest squadron, consisting of fourteen ships of the line, and six frigates, commanded by Monsieur Rochambault, sailed out, two by two, and met in the appointed latitude; from whence they proceeded to, and blocked up Sir Charles Hardy and the store-ships in the Tagus, who was afraid to put to sea while a superior fleet was waiting to intercept the

Convoy.

"On the 6th of July, the Dutch squadron, of twenty men of war, commanded by Admiral Baccharest, arrived on the British coast, and was ordered to Portsmouth, where a large fleet was assembled under Sir John

Balchen, who was joined on the 15th of July by the Dutch squadron. As soon as the British ministry received intelligence that Sir Charles Hardy and the store-ships were blocked up in the Tagus, Sir John Balcheu received orders to sail with the first favourable wind, and proceed in quest of the Brest squadron, to disengage Sir Charles Hardy from his detention at Lisbon."

We find that, on the 7th of August, Sir John Balchen sailed from Spithead, with a fleet of twenty-one ships, including the Dutch squadron, besides frigates, &c. and a convoy of two hundred merchantmen. Ile arrived of Lisbon on the 9th of September, released Sir Charles Hardy, and proceeded with him to Gibraltar, to victual and reinforce the garrison of that fortress. Having also supplied the Mediterranean fleet with stores, Sir Charles Hardy returned to England.

During his absence, he had been advanced from the blue to the red squadron; but he never attained a higher rank than that of vice-admiral, as he died at his house, in the Admiralty, on the 27th of November, 1744; "with the universal reputation," says Charnock," of a truly honourable and worthy man."

We now proceed to the immediate subject of this memoir, Sir Charles Hardy, the son of Sir Charles, whose naval services we have just been tracing, and the grandson of Sir Thomas.

With the period of this gentleman's birth we are unacquainted; but we understand that, on the 10th of August, 1741, he was promoted to the rank of captain, in the Rye, of 20, or 24 guns, as the successor of Captain Lushington. In this ship he shortly after. wards sailed to Carolina, where he remained till the month of July, 1742; immediately subsequent to which period, he was employed in cruising off the coast of Georgia, on which colony the Spaniards had effected a formidable descent.*-Lieutenant Suther

This event is thus mentioned in the gazette, under the date of Charlestown, South Carolina, July 7, 1742:

"By an express from General Oglethorpe we have advice, that on Monday the 5th instant, a Spanish fleet, of 32 sail, consisting of three ships of 20 guns, two large snows, three schooners, four sloops, the rest half galleys, after having hovered about the bar for seven days, and having then a strong easterly wind, came into Joky Sound, and that having stood the fire of 150 shots from the 18-pounders at St. Simon's fort, and from the ships and vessels that lay under that fort, they passed through the Sound without once attempting to board any of our vessels, but firing very smartly,

land, of General Oglethorpe's regiment, in his official account of the proceedings at Georgia, under the date of July 22, says :-"A few days afterwards the men of war from Charlestown came off Simon's Bar; and Captain Thompson, with some volunteers from Carolina, one guard schooner, and two gallies, came into St. Simon's harbour; and Captain Hardy, of the Rye man of war, receiving a message from the general by Lieutenant Maxwell, who went on board him, sent for answer-that he would take a cruise with the rest of the king's ships."

In 1744, Captain Hardy commanded the Jersey, of 60 guns; and, by commission bearing the date of June 9, in the same year, he was appointed governor, and commander in chief, of the island of Newfoundland, with the port of Placentia, and all its dependencies. This command appears to have been of very short duration, as he returned to England at the conclusion of the year. On his passage home, some of the ships under his convoy were captured; a circumstance which was investigated by a court martial, held on the 2d of February, 1745. He had the satisfaction of being honourably acquitted.

Continuing in the command of the Jersey, Captain Hardy, in the month of July following, had a very severe encounter, which lasted between two and three hours, with a French man of war, near the Straits' mouth. The action is thus recorded in the gazette:

proceeded up the river out of the reach of the guns, a little below Gascoigne's Bay, where they landed their forces, to the number of near 5000 men, at the same time hoisting a red flag at the mizen-top-mast head of one of the largest ships. Whereupon the general having done all he could to annoy the enemy as they landed, and having nailed up the guns, burst the bonbs and the cohorne, &c. was at last obliged to retire with his troops from the camp at St. Simon's to Frederica, seven miles up the river.

"By advice of his Majesty's council here, notice of what is above has been sent to the governors and commanders of his Majesty's ships of war in the neighbouring colonies, desiring their assistance; and letters have been also sent to General Wentworth, Governor Trelawney, of Jamaica, and Admiral Vernon, on the same subject.

"The Flamborough man of war, of 20 guns, and a row-galley belonging to this government, with two of his Majesty's sloops of war, the Swift and Hawke, are already despatched from hence to the assistance of Georgia; and in a day or two his Majesty's ship the Rye, of 20 guns, together with another row-galley will sail to its relief."