Rev. Dr Thomas Hardie

Dr. Thomas Hardie, son of the Rev. Thomas Hardie of Culross, was educated at the University of Edinburgh and began his ministry at Ballingry in Fife in 1774, where he quickly gained local respect. Actively engaged in church affairs, he published The Principles of Moderation in 1782, a thoughtful defence of the moderate party during debates over patronage, which brought him wider notice. In 1784 he was appointed a minister of the High Church of Edinburgh, later moving for health reasons to the New North Parish, and in 1788 became Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Edinburgh, revitalising a previously declining class. Beyond his preaching and teaching, he contributed to public and political life through published sermons, a plan for augmenting ministers’ stipends, and a government-backed rebuttal of Thomas Paine’s republican ideas. Highly regarded by his contemporaries, he served as Moderator of the General Assembly in 1793 and died in 1798, aged prematurely young, leaving behind a promising reputation and a family to mourn him.