From, England with Gov. John Winthrop in 1630, and after a brief residence in or near Boston was chosen one of the twelve, with John Winthrop, Jr. to settle Agawam (now Ipswich), Massachusetts, 1633 There he built the first frame house and was prominent in town affairs. To Rowley, 1653, later to Bradford (now Groveland), Massachusetts, where he held an estate of 1000 acres.
No associations are seen between Thomas Hardy of Haverhill and John Hardy of Salem.
Although several early writers believed Thomas had a first wife named Lydia, there is evidence only for wife Ann. Ann Hardy, widow, was the midwife for Sarah Savory in 1685, and may have performed that service for many of her neighbors over the years.
Given the lack of birth dates for the children of Thomas Hardy, there are some difficulties in establishing the birth order and birth range of these children. By his age at death, John would be just barley twenty at his first marriage, which is certainly possible, but somewhat below the norm. To make him older one would have to assume an underestimate of his age at death, which is not likely, and move his birth all the way back to 1639, which would make as much older than the norm at marriage as the age at death would make him younger.
Possibly the younger Thomas's age at death is exaggerated by a few years. If his birth year were estimated at 1639, this would make him twenty-five at marriage and would eliminate the gap of six years between him and the next younger child. If this were correct, then the marriage of Thomas Hardy to Ann _____ need not have occurred until 1639. In the absence of further evidence, however, we leave the children in the arrangement based on taking the ages at death at face value. Called "old Goodman Hardy" in 1677, he never achieved the status of "Mr." living his life in a very circumspect and quiet manner, despite a respectable estate.
