HATCHER, John (1634-78), of Careby, Lincs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

bap. 23 Jan. 1634, o.s. of Thomas Hatcher. m. 8 Apr. 1656, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Richard Anderson of Pendley, Herts., 4s. 4da. suc. fa. 1677.1

Offices Held

Commr. for sewers, Lincs. 1659, Aug. 1660, assessment, Jan. 1660, 1661-3, 1664-d., (Kesteven) Aug. 1660-1, 1663-4, militia, Lincs. Mar. 1660; j.p. Lincs. (Kesteven) Mar. 1660-76; capt. of militia horse, Lincs. Apr. 1660, commr. for sewers, Aug. 1660, recusants 1675, sheriff 1676-7.2

Biography

Hatcher Hatcher was too young to take any part in the Civil War and he first held local office in 1659. A Presbyterian like his father, he was returned for Stamford, five miles from his home, at the contested general election of 1660, and classed by Lord Wharton as a friend. An inactive Member of the Convention, ‘Mr Hatcher’ was named to only four committees, including those for the indemnity bill and the poll tax. He may have stood in 1661, and must have conformed to the Church of England. He acquired a useful connexion with the Court through Joseph Williamson, to whom he offered a share in a local land purchase. Between 1665 and 1669 he received a weekly newsletter from Williamson and on three occasions asked him to help kinsmen of his to employment. After his removal from the commission of the peace in June 1676 on the complaint of Lord Lindsey (Robert Bertie I), he wrote to Williamson:

Last post I had notice of my being in the bill of sheriffs for this county, an office I had thought myself very secure from, since I have not been thought worthy to be in the commission of the peace, but when I consider how I have been treated in other matters, it does not seem so strange to me that I am put on this office or anything else that may be burdensome or chargeable to me. But my request is now to you, not as formerly to keep me off from being sheriff, but on the contrary to promote my being on, for, we being in our county, as in several others, under an agreement for sheriffs, I can defray the charge for £500 less than I could, were that agreement set aside. Another motive why I rather desire this office now is that having been engaged at Stamford for a burgesship there, which I find will be very chargeable, I could being made sheriff give over prosecution of it, with a salvo honore. I should not presume to have requested your favour, did I not think it less trouble to you to make me sheriff than to keep me off.

He was duly made sheriff a few days later, but cast aside constitutional niceties, not only fighting the Stamford election but petitioning unsuccessfully against the result. He did not long survive his father, and was buried on 1 Jan. 1679 at Careby. No later member of the family entered Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. li), 469; Herts. Par. Reg. ii. 65.
  • 2. Merc. Publ. 19 Apr. 1660.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1664-5, pp. 41, 48, 419; 1665-6, pp. 50, 544; 1668-9, p. 198; 1676-7, p. 406; HMC Finch, ii. 44.