Lieutenant-Colonel William Harding of Upcott in the parish of Pilton in Devon, was a British antiquary, geologist and army officer. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society and after his retirement from the Army was an active member of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural and Archaeological Society. He is known for his History of Tiverton published in 1845 and 1847.
Origins
He was born on 16 August 1792 at Upcott, the 3rd son of Robert Harding of Upcott, by his wife Dyonisia Wrey 2nd daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Baronet of Tawstock Court, Devon, a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, Devon, one of the most prominent noblemen and largest landowners in the county, being the heir of the Bourchier Earls of Bath of Tawstock. His younger brother was Rev. John Harding, Rector of Goodleigh from 1831 until his death. His family was related to the Harding family of Buzzacott in the parish of Combe Martin in North Devon, of whom an early member was Thomas Harding a Roman Catholic priest and controversialist and one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince. In the early 1790s Richard Harding of the Buzzacott family was a founding partner of the surviving Devonshire law firmBrewer Harding & Rowe, whose early work involved the management of the Harding estates. After World War II it was acquired by Geoffrey Stallard, a London solicitor, and in 1988 the firm donated a large collection of Harding family papers to the North Devon Records Office.
In 1866, following the death of his elder brother Thomas Wrey Harding, he inherited the Upcott estate and lordship of the manor of Pilton. On a prominent hill on his estate of Upcott he built a large stone folly, described variously as either a "castellated sham gatehouse" or a Triumphal Arch, which latter interpretation is believed to commemorate his military service during the Peninsular War. This survives today, somewhat dilapidated, as a prominent landmark visible from the main road between Barnstaple to Braunton. In 1850 he paid for the building of three of the turrets on Pilton Church. He spent the last years of his life working on his huge collection of papers mostly relating to the churches, memorials and families of Devon. These remain unpublished and following his death were deposited in the Athaneum in Barnstaple. A Report on the Harding Collection was published in 1870 by the Devonshire Association.
Marriage and children
In January 1824 at Weedon Bec he married Ann Elizabeth Jones, who survived him and by whom he had two sons, who predeceased him unmarried and without children of their own, and one daughter, who also predeceased him, as follows:
Robert William Harding, eldest son, educated at Blundell's School, matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford in 1842, a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple in 1851. He died in Exeter in 1851 aged 27. His joint monument with his brother is in Pilton Church.
Capt. Thomas Henry Harding, Royal Artillery, educated at Blundell's School, died aged 30, buried at Barnstaple, near Upcott. His joint monument with his brother is in Pilton Church.
He died on 13 January 1886 at Upcott and his funeral was held in Pilton Church, to which his coffin had been accompanied by a large procession including his tenantry and estate workers. He was buried in the churchyard of Pilton Church, inside which survives his mural monument, on the centre of the west wall, inscribed as follows:
Arms above: Or, on a bend sable three martlets of the field, a mullet for difference of a 3rd son. Crest: A falcon rising. Monument marked: W.Youings & Son, Barum
Succession
He was succeeded by his kinsman Colonel John Stafford Goldie Harding, OBE, of the Devon Regiment, who commenced his military service in 1874 with the Devon Militia and later served with the 3rd and 4th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment. In World War I he served as Chief Recruiting Officer for Devonshire. John Stafford Goldie Harding was buried at Instow in North Devon.
