at St. Mary's Church, Oxford. Harding was eminent for his scholarship; his epitaph in Souldern Church says he was 'commonly called the Grecian for his eminence in that tongue,' and was remarkable 'for his holy and pious conversation, his hospitality, and charity to the poor.' He died 'in the time of the great revolution and change of church and state ... a true son of the church.' He built a
new parsonage at Souldern, but left his family in poverty, for they were unable to publish his life's work, a history of church and state affairs, relating especially to England, for eight hundred years ending in 1626. A committee of the House of Commons licensed and recommended it for publication in 1641, and an effort was made in 1651 to publish it by subscription in a notice signed by Bishops
Ussher and Gataker, Dugard of the Merchant Taylors' School offering to print it if the necessary 2,000l. was subscribed. These attempts failed, and in September 1695 the manuscript was advertised for sale in Whitechapel; its ultimate fate is undiscoverable (see Wood MSS. v. 658, p. 799, for Dugard's offer, and printed notice of sale of manuscripts, ib. v. 276, p. 88, in Bodleian Library).
[Welch's Alumni Westmonast. p. 17; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, b. xii'. No. xvi. 502-6; Chester's Eegisters of Westminster Abbey, p. 123 w.; Hist, of Souldern, Oxford (Archæological Soc.), 1887.]
HARDING, WILLIAM (1792–1886), historian of Tiverton, was of an old Westcountry family mentioned in Prince's 'Worthies of Devon,' the third son of Robert Harding of Upcott, Devonshire, who died in 1804, by his wife, Dionisia, daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, bart., of Tawstock. He was born on 16 Aug. 1792, was educated at Blundell's school, Tiverton, and became an ensign in the North Devon militia, from which he obtained an ensigncy in the 5th foot in 1812, and became lieutenant of the 95th rifles in 1813. He served in the Peninsula from August 1812 to the end of the war, including the siege of Burgos, capture of Madrid, battles of Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse, for which he subsequently received the Peninsular medal and clasps. He became captain of the 58th foot in 1823, major unattached in 1826, and retired as lieutenant-colonel by the sale of his commissions, having first exchanged to full pay in the 2nd foot for that purpose on 22 Nov. 1841. Harding, after his retirement from the service, was many years resident at Tiverton. He wrote an excellent 'History of Tiverton' (2 vols. 8vo, 1847), which appears to have been his only published work. He was a magistrate, a fellow of the Geological Society, and a member of some local societies. He died at Barnstaple 15 Jan. 1886, in his ninety-fourth year.
[Burke's Landed Gentry, eds. 1868, 1886; Army Lists; Ann. Reg. 1886.]
HARDINGE, GEORGE (1743–1816), author and senior justice of Brecon, was born on 22 June (new style) 1743 at Canbury, a manorhouse in Kingston-on-Thames. He was the third but eldest surviving son of Nicholas Hardinge [q. v.], by his wife Jane, daughter of Sir John Pratt, and sister of Charles, first earl Camden. He was educated by Woodeson, a Kingston schoolmaster, and at Eton under Dr. Barnard [see Barnard, Edward. He was once acting in his boarding-house the part of Cato in Addison's play, when Barnard solemnly advanced upon the stage, and tore ‘Cato's long wig’ and gown without mercy. The wig (borrowed from a barber) was identified by Burton, the vice-provost, as his own (Hardinge, Miscellaneous Works, i. p. xi). Hardinge succeeded to his father's estate on the death of the latter on 9 April 1758. On 14 Jan. 1761 he was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge. He took no B.A. degree, but in 1769 obtained that of M.A. by royal mandate. On 9 June 1769 he was called to the bar (Middle Temple), and soon had considerable practice at nisi prius. One of his friends at this time was Akenside the poet. In 1776 he visited France and Switzerland. Lady Gray (mother of Sir Charles Gray), whom he visited in her ninetieth year at Denhill, presented him with fifty guineas for his journey. On his return he somewhat neglected law, and his friend, Sir William Jones, warned him in a sonnet against ‘the glare of wealth’ and pleasure (ib. p. xvi). On 20 Oct. 1777 he married Lucy, daughter and heiress of Richard Long of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, who survived her husband. They had no children, but Hardinge educated and adopted as his son and heir George Nicholas Hardinge [q. v.], son of his brother, Henry Hardinge. Soon after his marriage Hardinge went to live at Ragman's Castle, a small house at Twickenham (Walford, Greater London, i. 86). Here he saw much of his neighbour, Horace Walpole, of whom he has left a character, printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ viii. 525. In April 1782 he was appointed solicitor-general to the queen, and in March 1794 her attorney-general. In 1783 he was counsel in the House of Commons for the defence of Sir Thomas Rumbold, and on 16 Dec. of that year was counsel at the bar of the House of Lords for the East India Company, in opposition to Fox's India Bill. In 1784 he was returned M.P. for
