HATTON, Christopher II (c.1581-1619), of Clay Hall, Barking, Essex and Kirby Hall, Northants.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1581, 1st s.of John Hatton of Long Stanton, Cambs. by Jane, da. of Robert Shute. educ. Camb. by 1599. m. 13 Mar. 1602, Alice, da. of Thomas Fanshawe I of Ware Park, Herts., at least 1s. 1da. suc. Sir William Hatton formerly Newport to estates of Christopher Hatton I 1597. KB 1603.2

Offices Held

Remembrancer of the Exchequer 1616; jt. steward of manor of Barking 1616.3

Biography

Hatton was only 16 when his kinsman died. His mother, who applied for the wardship, met an influential counter-claimant in Edward Coke, and Hatton was finally made a royal ward. In 1599 Bishop Bancroft of London wrote to Cecil asking him ‘to favour the heir of mine old friend and master, the late lord chancellor’. Lord Burghley had sent the boy to Cambridge, without making arrangements for his maintenance. Though young Hatton had been up to London about his affairs, and Fulke Greville had spoken to the Queen on his behalf, he had received nothing but fair words. ‘Who would have thought’, Bancroft concluded his letter, ‘that within seven years the lord chancellor’s heir should have been brought to such an exigent?’. Soon afterwards someone, perhaps (Sir) John Fortescue I or Cecil, brought Hatton into Parliament, though he was still a minor.4

The question of the burdened Hatton estates remained unsettled until the end of Elizabeth’s reign. In 1605 Hatton obtained an Act of Parliament allowing him to sell part of the inheritance. He conveyed Holdenby to the King in 1608, with remainder to the Duke of York, the future Charles I. Hatton died intestate 10 Sept. 1619, and was buried in Westminster abbey. ‘His easy kindness’, wrote John Chamberlain, ‘could deny nothing to his friends or kindred, who wrought upon him extraordinarily’, which if he had lived long, ‘would have much weakened, if not ruined his whole estate’. Administration was granted to the widow. His son Christopher, who succeeded him, became the 1st Baron Hatton of Kirby.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. C142/249/63; E. St. John Brooks, Sir C. Hatton, 360; Baker, Northants. i. 196-7; Westminster Abbey Reg. ed. Chester (Harl. Soc. x), 115-16, 123; Add. Charter 19885; HMC Hatfield, ix. 178; CP, vi. 396; Lansd. 94, f. 137.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1611-18, pp. 355, 430.
  • 4. Lansd. 151, f. 77; J. Hurstfield, Queen’s Wards, 71; HMC Hatfield, ix. 178; Brooks, 359-61.
  • 5. APC, 1615-16, pp. 629, 645, 647, 668; 1616-17, pp. 258, 322; CSP Dom. 1603-10, pp. 312, 414, 448; 1611-18, pp. 355, 430; 1619-23, p. 82; Northampton Recs. ii. 469; Chamberlain Letters ed. McClure, i. 615, 622; ii. 262, 265; C142/376/100; PCC admon. act bk. 1619, f. 33v; CP.