Career
Born at Leicester 7 October 1793, he was the only child of William Hardy, a manufacturer there. After education in a private school in Leicester, he was admitted a proctor and notary public, and became a practitioner in the ecclesiastical courts. In 1826 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Hardy was known for his anti-Catholic polemics.
In 1828 George Kenyon, 2nd Baron Kenyon and Lord Howe used him as a campaigner, in an effort to turn Leicestershire against Catholic emancipation. He retained all his legal appointments till his death at Leicester on 19 July 1849.