Who were the parents of PGM Thomas Hardy?

Question

There are multiple theories about his origins:

1. that he was son of Richard Hardyand Alice Wilson^{[citation needed]}
2. that he was the Thomas Hardy baptized by Robert Hardy at Bradford St Peter, West Riding of Yorkshire, England in 1600.^{[citation needed]} This church might have been the spiritual center of some people who emigrated to the New World.^{[citation needed]}. And Bradford was the name of the town he supposedly settled in.
3. The following is quoted from Find A Grave website and is included here to illustrate the widely held, but essentially unproven, story about Thomas Hardy:

THOMAS I HARDY was born about 1605 in England. 

THOMAS I HARDY came to America with Governor WINTHROP in 1630. He had at least two brothers, JOHN HARDY who settled in Salem, Mass. and probably RICHARD HARDY, who settled first in Concord, Mass. and then in about 1640 he moved to Stamford,Connecticut. In 1633 THOMAS I HARDY was one of twelve men to establish Ipswich, Mass. In 1653 he moved to Rowley, Mass. and then in about 1663 he moved to Bradford (now Haverhill), Mass. where he became owner of one thousand acres of land. A codicil to his will (4 Mar 1671-2) dated 12 Dec 1677 said he was ab. 72.^[1]

According to Anderson, "no connections are seen between the family of Thomas Hardy of Haverhill and that of John Hardy of Salem."^[2]

There is no proof of speculation that John Hardy (that came to Salem MA) was a brother of Thomas.^[3]

Comments

side question... what does PGM mean?

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Puritan Great Migration

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Parents detached.

Answer 1

Maybe the better question would be, can we admit that we do not know the ancestry of Thomas Hardy.

We all want to trace our family back into the mists of time, but we need to know when to admit defeat, at least until some facts can be found.

Comments

Jeanie, take a look at the comments on the page; there's a recent one making a case. I'm hoping she'll cite her sources.

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A baptism alone is meaningless. I did a search on freereg and found 4 Thomas Hardys born between 1595 and 1605, two of them from Norfolk. Norfolk was also the home of many PGM colonist. And I know I'm preaching to the choir with you, but it takes more than that to make a case.

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All about the glorious le Hardis and de Hardys here

https://books.google.com/books?id=jH7rspMg0BcC&pg=PA8

Only thing is, the posh ones went to Virginia.

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She made a case for more than the baptism. The baptism took place in a town that had a lot of PGM emigrants in it. It's also the name that was given to the town in Massachusetts where Thomas Hardy settled.

We could also look at naming conventions. Did the names of the parents on the baptism show up in the names of the children of Thomas?

I realize these are all circumstantial, but together? Do they make a strong enough case for at least "Uncertain" parents?

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I always ask myself, what would Robert Charles Anderson think?

Would this arguement convince him? It does sound promising.

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Robert Charles Anderson has the luxury of not having to deal with "Uncertain" parents. But because of wikitree-wide policy on "Uncertain", we have to deal with the Uncertainty factor. For Anderson, there's either evidence or there isn't for a person's origins. Anderson might look at the circumstantial evidence and suggest the possibility of origins. But the woman who posted the comment has not provided any source citations. Without citations, Anderson wouldn't even consider the situation.

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A lot of PGMs came from Bradford? 

The baptism is already mentioned in the Disputed Origins section.

Image on Ancestry at

http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/2256/32355_249693-00005?#?imageId=32355_249693-00007

Bradford Parish Church (St Peter's)

1600

November 2  [Image 3 on filmstrip]

[2nd of 3 on that date]

Thomas S of Robt Hardye of Thorneton

They're all in weekly batches.  At that time, they were supposed to unlock the register on Sundays and write up the week.  So it could be they only did baptisms on Sundays, or it could be they didn't bother to record the actual date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton,_West_Yorkshire

Ancestry has about a dozen Thomas Hardys born in the timeframe.

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1. Thomas Hardy was the son of Robert Hardy of Thornton, Yorkshire. he was baptised in the Cathedral of St. Peter.

2. St. Peter's in Rowley, Yorkshire was a hub of Puritan migration, I have never seen the same written about St. Peter's Cathedral in Bradford, what is the source of that claim.

3. Thomas Hardy settled first in Ipswich in 1633 and then about 1665 removed to the part of Rowley, that in 1672 became the town of Bradford. This is not the same thing as saying he settled in the town of Bradford, Massachusetts.

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As a recent comment posted to the profile indicates, we have yet to resolve this situation.

Per wikitree guidelines and the minimal evidence available, we could retain the current parents and their current "uncertain" status. Or we could detach the parents and just list them (as they currently are listed) under "Disputed Origins."

Thoughts?

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I hated seeing that note about bad genealogy. Nice note you left the commenter Jillaine.

I don't think the "coincidence" of events (especially given Jeanie's last comment) is enough to prove that Robert was the father.

If it were one set of uncertain parents, maybe you could leave them attached, but when you start getting multiple sets of uncertain parents, I don't think you should give one set precedence by leaving them attached. They should all be detached.

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I've detached the parents and added notes on each of them. Thomas still has a comment on his profile about the children of his purported parents. I don't have the bandwidth to deal with those.

Can he now be protected?

Thanks.

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Can a leader or PM please delete Barbara Foster's comment?

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Done and done Jillaine

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I've dealt with the children

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Thank you, Anne!