Capt. Robert Harding, of Boston

From Great Migration Begins AncestryImage

Robert Harding, merchant and Mercer, born abt 1610 of John and Mary Harding of Boreham, Essex. Married 1) Philip Hammond, widow 2) Esther Wyllys, daughter of George Wyllys 3) unknown. Returned to England before 17 October 1654. Died there (probably) before 1 March 1658.

Ann (Harding) Buttolph was sister of ROBERT HARDING (who came to Boston in 1630), Abraham Harding (who was in New England by 1640), & ELIZABETH HARDING (who came to New England in 1635 & married about 1644 Harry Bridgham).

Source: Anderson's Great Migration Study Project AncestryImage

Biography

From The History of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company: Rev. and Enl ... By Zachariah Gardner Whitman. Page 63. GoogleBooks

Capt. Robert Hardinge. This name is spelt Harding, by Farmer. It appears on the old roll as No. 17, and is spelt there, and in various places on the old records of Boston, as I have spelt it. He wa3 admitted freeman, May 18th, 1631. Savage thinks he came in the fleet with Winthrop. He lived in Boston, and was one of the first Board of Selectmen elected there. He was Ensign of the voluntary train band of Boston, 1636, under Capt. Underhill and Lieut. Gibbons. He was one of those disarmed, for his heterodoxy, by order of court, in 1637, and must have been one of those, mentioned by Winthrop as among the officers of the military, who made their recantation, or his name also would not have been among the charter members. It seems the Governor, &c. sent for them and questioned them. Their standing and characters rendered it expedient the constituted authorities should bring them over to the faith as early as possible, for, situated as the country was, exposed to the merciless savages without, and dissentions within, the officers of the military, the only skilled in tactics, were absolutely necessary for their preservation, and the ruling powers had not then sufficient confidence in their party to venture very severe measures. Hardinge, however, was probably a backslider from the faith, notwithstanding he might have recanted; for he went to Rhode Island, with others who were banished, where, in 1641, he became an assistant of that colony.*

https://archive.org/stream/collectionsofcon21conn#page/n42/mode/1up