Family and Education

b. c.1694, 2nd s. of Richard Hardman of Liverpool merchant, by Elizabeth, da. of James Fernyside.  m. a lady named Kockshead, s.p.

Offices Held

Biography

Hardman was a Liverpool merchant, and during the decade preceding his entry into Parliament he repeatedly attended or addressed the Board of Trade on behalf of the corporation of Liverpool or of Liverpool merchants. A ship-owner, he was engaged in the triangular trade between England, West Africa, and the West Indies,1 and had considerable knowledge of African and American trade, though, as he stated when giving evidence before the House of Commons, 7 Mar. 1750, he had ‘never been abroad’.

In 1754 he was returned head of the poll, and was classed by Dupplin as a Government supporter. But he was a sick man—‘I was very poorly at London,’ he wrote to Robert Nugent, 15 Apr. 1755, ‘and my health deprived me of all spirits.’2  He died 6 Dec. 1755.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

• 1. CJ, xxii. 567.
• 2. C. Nugent, Mem. Earl Nugent, 263.