REPORT. XXxi 
KING’S NEWTON, DERBYSHIRE. 
KING’S NEWTON HALL. 
The hall is supposed to have been built by the Hardinge family about the 
year 1400. It was occupied successively by members of that family down to 
about 130 years ago, when it was sold to the Coke family. It now belongs to 
Earl Cowper, as successor to Lady Palmerston. 
I will not trouble you with a pedigree of the Hardinge family, but may 
mention that Nicholas Hardinge married, for his second wife, Agnes, daughter 
of John Cantrell, Esq., in the 20th year of Henry VII. 
There is a monument in Melbourne Church to Henry, the grandson of 
Nicholas Hardinge. It states that he died December 8th, 1613. His brother 
Nicholas succeeded to the hall and estate at his death, and married Isabell, 
sole daughter of Edward Webb, Esq., of Austrey, Warwickshire. His son 
Robert was knighted Feb. 2nd, 1674. He bore a conspicuous part as a 
Royalist during the civil wars, and raised a troop of horse at his own expense. 
King Charles II. paid him a visit at Newton, and scratched on a pane in the 
window of his dressing room, the words, ‘‘cras evo lux,” which, when tran- 
sposed, make ‘‘Carolus Rex.”? The pane disappeared rather more than 50 
years ago. 
Sir Robert and Lady Hardinge (occupants of the hall) were both buried in 
Melbourne Church. The date of Sir Robert’s burial being Nov. 29th, 1679. 
Sir Robert’s grandson, Nicholas, purchased the Manor of Canbury, near 
Kingston-on-Thames, in 1691. He was Recorder of Kingston, and died and 
was buried there, April 13th, 1758. 
The Hardinge Tombs in Melbourne Church were examined on the night of 
January 12th, 1860, in the presence of the Church Restoration Committee, but 
no coffins of Sir Robert or Lady Hardinge were found, as, up to the year 
1694, it was the custom to bury the bodies at Melbourne wrapped in woollen. 
John Hardinge of King’s Newton, eldest son of Robert Hardinge, and 
brother of Nicholas before mentioned, married Alice Coke, daughter of 
Colonel Coke, of Melbourne, and Mary Leventhorpe, daughter of Sir Thomas 
Leventhorpe, of Hertfordshire, in 1711. 
The Hardinges, like the Cokes, appear to have been a fine manly race ; and 
after leaving King’s Newton, many of them attained considerable eminence ; 
notably, George Hardinge, who was in command of the ‘‘San Fiorenzo,” of 
36 guns and 186 men, attacked a French vessel, ‘‘ La Piedmontaise,” of 56 
guns and 566 men, on three successive days. He fell just before the comple- 
tion of the capture of the vessel, on the 8th March, 1808. A monument to his 
memory was voted by the House of Commons, and was placed in St. Paul’s 
Cathedral. Viscount Hardinge, of King’s Newton, distinguished himself 
highly at Albuera, and was afterwards Governor General of India. At the 
