Re: JOHN HARDY/MARY STANLEY Lord Mayor of London/Royal Line?
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In reply to:
JOHN HARDY/MARY STANLEY Lord Mayor of London/Royal Line?
Susan Smith 2/04/09
I am interested in this.
While it's true that there were no Lord Mayors named Hardy, the John Hardy said to have been Lord Mayor was definitely Sheriff of London, which is only one step down:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46797http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46797
I don't see much reason to doubt William's claim to descent from John but would be interested to hear what people who know more about this kind of thing have to say. It's probably some of the best information we have about the Hardys, and the mistake ("Lord Mayor" instead of "Sheriff") and ambiguity ("descended from" instead of "son of") can easily be chalked up to the passage of time. I've seen claims of John's death as being about 1554 (by poison apparently), giving plenty of time for confusion before the recording by the herald.
The "female line" or "mere legend" hypotheses might have some merit though. "Female line" seems unlikely to me because that's not what heraldry was really concerned with but it is ambiguous enough to possibly allow that. This kind of thing is always worth investigating.