Thomas Hardy

Who was Thomas Hardy?

Thomas Hardy, was a Scottish Minister, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University.

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, the evils of the slave trade, the need for increase stipends for Ministers as well as polemics against the writings of the radical Thomas Paine