HARDY, SIR THOMAS DUFFUS English antiquary, belonged to a family famous in the annals of the British navy. Born at Port Royal in Jamaica on May 22, 1804, he crossed over to England and in 1819 entered the Record Office in the Tower of London. Trained under Henry Petrie (1768 1842) he gained a sound knowledge of palaeography, and soon began to edit selections of the public records. From 1861 until his death on June 15, 1878, he was deputy-keeper of the Record Office, which just before his appointment had been transferred to its new London headquarters in Chancery Lane. Hardy, who was knighted in 1873, had much to do with the appointment of the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1869. Sir T. Hardy edited the Close Rolls, Rotuli litterarum clausarum, 1204–r227 (2 vols., and the Patent Rolls, Rotuli litterarum patentium, 1201-1216 (1835) with introduction, "A Description of the Patent Rolls, to which is added an Itinerary of King John." He also edited the Rotuli de oblatis et finibus (1835), which deal also with the time of King John. He edited many other important series of documents. His best known work is the invaluable Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (3 vols., 1862-71).