HARDY, ELIAS (1744-1798)

HARDY, ELIAS, non-resident MLA; b. Farnham, England, c1744; m. Martha Huggerford, of New York; d. Saint John, 25 Dec 1798.

Elias Hardy was a lawyer in England before 1776 and in New York State from 1776 to 1783. He came to New Brunswick as a Loyalist in 1784 and was admitted to the bar the next year. Known as the "London lawyer," he was William Davidson's legal advisor, and political colleague as well, when he and Davidson were elected to the Assembly as the representatives for Northumberland County in the first provincial election in 1785. Sheriff Benjamin Marston, who opposed the candidacies of both men, dismissed Hardy as "an attorney of no great reputation," but the opposing view, that he was "well nigh without a peer," has prevailed.

Hardy held his Northumberland County seat until the dissolution of the assembly in 1792. He then sat for three years as a representative for St John County. He retired from politics in 1795 due to illness. He was survived in 1798 by his wife, Martha Huggerford, and four children.