28 LIST OF THE INHABITANTS OF MELBOURNE, 1695. 
Stephen Allen, who stands at the head of the list of Mr. Coke’s 
servants, was evidently the steward of the Manor, for he is de- 
scribed as ‘‘ gent.” This was no small distinction ; because he 
was the only person in the parish who is so designated, except 
Thomas Swetnam, who lived on his own freehold, and kept a 
man and a maid. 
Next in the list to Squire Coke, comes Robert Hardinge, 
Esquire, of King’s Newton, with his second wife Elizabeth, his son 
John, and his four daughters—Mary, Anne, Jane, and Isabel. 
These were his children by his first wife Jane, the daughter and 
co-heir of William Buxton, Esquire, of Youlgreave, Derbyshire, 
who was buried here 22nd October, 1692. These four daughters 
all died unmarried; but the son, John Hardinge, who was 
baptized here on 26th September, 1685, graduated M.A. at 
Cambridge in 1705, succeeded to the family estate on his father’s 
death in October, 1709. He was afterwards the King’s Remem- 
brancer in the Court of Exchequer, and married here on 12th 
April, 1711, Alice Coke, sister of the Right Honourable Thomas 
Coke, M.P., above-mentioned. He died without issue, and was 
buried here on 27th January, 1728-9, when the elder line of the 
Hardinges became extinct. 
Robert Hardinge, the magistrate, who signed the assessment, 
was the son and heir of Sir Robert Hardinge, a staunch Cavalier, 
who had the honour of entertaining Charles II. in his hall at 
King’s Newton, which is still standing; and was knighted at 
Whitehall on 2nd February, 1674-5. He died on 29th November, 
1679, and is described on his monuuient as “a faithful servant to 
God, the king, the Church of England, and his country in the 
worst times.” He sprung from a family of yeoman origin, who 
had been owners of land in King’s Newton from the reign of 
Henry VI.; but they were not entitled to bear arms, and the 
family was not noticed in the Visitations of 1611 or 1636. Sir 
Robert claimed descent from Hardinge of Bristol, the ancestor of 
the Berkeleys ; and remonstrated with Dugdale when his preten- 
tions to bear the arms of that noble family were disallowed. But 
his family name was originally written Hardie and his uncle 
*, eee 
