Samuel Hardy was born c. 1758 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, United States. He was the scion of a family settled in that county since 1636 or earlier. His father, Richard Hardy, was a vestryman of the church and a member of the House of Burgesses, 1772-1774.
Hardy was educated at the College of William and Mary.
Hardy was admitted to the bar on October 1, 1778, and two days later, at a by-election, was chosen to the House of Delegates. Appointed escheator on August 5, 1779, he resigned that office in April 1780, having meanwhile been again elected to the House of Delegates, in which body he continued to serve until June 12, 1781, when he was appointed to the Privy Council.
He was lieutenant-governor of Virginia from May 29 to October 11, 1782. On June 6, 1783, he was chosen as one of the delegates to the Continental Congress and was continued in the delegation until his death.
His career in Congress, though brief, was notable. Monroe at first feared that Hardy might ally himself with the "intemperate" party, but he learned better. The period of his service in Congress was one of the stormiest in that body's history, a time when hot words and even challenges to duels were hurled across the narrow spaces of the assembly hall.
When in the early summer of 1784 Congress adjourned, leaving a committee of the states to function in its stead, Hardy was chosen by his colleagues as Virginia's representative on the committee and by the committee itself to be its chairman. Thus he had for a time essentially the same powers and duties as a president of Congress. The committee soon went to pieces, but Hardy did his utmost to hold it together.
During 1785 in the battle over the requisition and the state debts, he gave his last services to his country. Riding out to Kingsbridge afterward he broke a blood vessel, and death soon followed. The next day his remains were interred in a vault of St. Paul's Church, New York City, with funeral ceremonies more than usually elaborate.
Samuel Hardy went down in history as a prominent lawyer and statesman from Virginia, and is best remembered for his service as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Hardy County in West Virginia was named in his honor. One of his friends, "Amyntor" (possibly Alexander Hamilton), wrote an elegy on his death.
On July 30, 1778, Hardy was initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
According to Hugh Blair Grigsby, "Hardy was one of the most popular and beloved of our early statesmen. " Jefferson said that Hardy had but one foible, that of being too good-humored. Yet this good humor must have been oil for the troubled waters through which he had to struggle. He was one of the most active members of the Congress and a hard fighter despite his amiability; still, he kept his serenity and his friendships through it all.
Hardy was never married; the lady to whom he was engaged preceded him in death.
