Thomas Hardy (occasionally Thomas Hardie) FRSE (22 April 1748 – 21 November 1798) was a Scottish Minister, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1793 and Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh University. He was also Dean of the Chapel Royal and Chaplain in Ordinary to the King.
He was better known for his political and social activities than his scholarship, though he was a popular and eloquent preacher.
His academic lectures, it is said, were often met with applause. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the British Government during the troubled times of the French Revolution, as was natural to one whose career had benefited from the patronage of Henry Dundas.
He published nothing on Church History, his academic subject, but some of his sermons survive as do pamphlets on Moderation in Religion (meaning support for the established order), the evils of the slave trade, the need for increased stipends for Ministers as well as polemics against the writings of the radical Thomas Paine.
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Life
He was born in 1748 in Navitie House in Ballingry, Fife, the son of Rev Henry Hardy, the minister of Culross, and his wife Ann Halkerston.
After studying at Edinburgh University he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy on 16 September 1772. He was presented to the Parish of Ballingry by its patron Sir Michael Malcolm and ordained there on 16 June 1774. Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary doctorate (DD) in 1778.