Christopher Hatton

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For other people named Christopher Hatton, see Christopher Hatton (disambiguation).
Christopher Hatton, c. 1575
Arms of Sir Christopher Hatton, KG


Early years[edit]

Sir Christopher Hatton was the second son of William Hatton (d. 28 August 1546)[1] of Holdenby, Northamptonshire, and his second wife, Alice Saunders, the daughter of Lawrence Saunders (d.1544) of Harrington, Northamptonshire, and his wife, Alice Brokesby, the daughter of Robert Brokesby (d. 28 March 1531) of Shoby, Leicestershire, and Alice Shirley.[2][3][4][5][a]



Hatton represented Higham Ferrers in parliament in 1571, and from May 1572 onwards was a member for Northamptonshire.[12][19] He was an active agent in parliament in the prosecutions of John Stubbs and William Parry.[12] He was also one of those appointed to arrange a marriage between the Queen and Francois, Duke of Alençon, in 1581,[12] although he urged the Queen not to marry Alençon.


Hatton was a member of the court which tried Anthony Babington in 1586, and was one of the commissioners who found Mary, Queen of Scots, guilty of treason in the following year. He vigorously denounced the Queen of Scots in parliament, and advised William Davison to forward the warrant for her execution to Fotheringhay.[21]






Hatton became very wealthy as a result of his progressing career and the Queen's fondness for him, so much so that in 1583 he embarked on the construction of a magnificent house in Holdenby, Northamptonshire. It was, at the time, the largest privately owned Elizabethan house in England. It contained 123 huge glass windows, in the days when glass was very expensive (indeed, a good show of wealth was how many windows you could afford in your house). It had 2 great courts and was as large as the palace of Hampton Court. It was 3 storeys high and had 2 large state rooms, one for himself and another for the queen should she ever come and stay, which she never did. Lord Burghley, who visited the house in his old age, was immensely impressed with the grand staircase leading from the hall to the staterooms and proclaimed the house so faultless that he forgot the 'infirmity of his legs' whilst he walked around. No expense was spared, and Hatton even paid to move an entire small village because it spoiled his view from one of the windows. The cost of the house drained his purse to such an extent that Hatton was permanently short of money for the rest of his life. No stranger to the financial strain of building, Burghley had written to Hatton "God send us both long to enjoy her, for whom we both meant to exceed our purses in these." To maintain his dwindling wealth, Hatton began investing in some of the voyages of Francis Drake. He helped fund Drake's acts of piracy in Spanish America. During Drake's subsequent circumnavigation of the globe, when he reached the straits of Magellan, he renamed his ship 'The Golden Hind' in Honour of Hatton's coat of Arms - which contained a golden hind - and all the Spanish gold on board. Hatton made a profit of £2300 from this particular expedition.


Despite his successes, he died with large debts, only a few years after his house at Holdenby was finally completed. All that remains of the original Holdenby House are old drawings and plans, one room which was later incorporated into a new restoration in the 1870s, part of the pillared doorway and 2 arches with the date 1583 inscribed upon them, which now stand alone in the gardens.[22]

Hatton's health declined in 1591. The Queen visited him on 11 November, and on 20 November he died at Ely Place, and was given a state funeral at Old St Paul's Cathedral on 16 December.[2] A magnificent monument to him stood at the high altar of Old St Paul's: "towering above it - an outrage to the susceptibilities of the devout but an object of marvel to London sightseers - until the Great Fire of 1666 dethroned and destroyed it".[23] Hatton is listed on a modern monument in the crypt as one of the important graves lost.


See also[edit]


  1. ^ The date of the death of Hatton's mother is not known, nor whether she remarried after the death of William Hatton. On his father's side, it is said that the pedigree of Hatton is 'traced beyond records'. In the reign of Henry VII, Henry Hatton of Quisty Birches in Cheshire married Elizabeth, the sole heiress of William Holdenby of Holdenby, Northamptonshire. Their son, John Hatton, settled at Holdenby, and had three sons, of whom Sir Christopher Hatton's father, William, was the eldest. Sir Christopher Hatton is said to have had two brothers, Thomas and William, and a sister, Dorothy (d.1569), who married firstly, John Newport (d.1566) of Hunningham, Warwickshire, and secondly, William Underhill (d.1570) of Idlicote, Warwickshire, whose son, also named William Underhill (d.1597), sold New Place to William Shakespeare.[6] In 1567 Sir Christopher Hatton's brother, Thomas, married John Newport's sister, Ursula Newport.[7] However it appears that Hatton's two brothers both died relatively young, and neither left issue, and it was his sister Dorothy's son by John Newport who eventually became Hatton's heir.[8][3]
  1. ^ a b Nicolas 1847, p. 2.
  2. ^ a b c MacCaffrey 2004.
  3. ^ a b Metcalfe 1887, p. 27.
  4. ^ Richardson I 2011, p. 402.
  5. ^ Agutter 2010, pp. 288–9.
  6. ^ Stopes 1907, pp. 127-32.
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ Nicolas 1847, pp. 1–2.
  9. ^ Nicolas 1847, p. 3.
  10. ^ Nicolas 1847, p. 4.
  11. ^ Nicolas 1847, pp. 4–5.
  14. ^ Nicolas 1847, pp. 38–9.
  15. ^ Nicolas 1847, pp. 36, 39.
  17. ^ Nicolas 1847, p. 15.
  18. ^ Nicolas 1847, pp. 25–8.
  19. ^ Nicolas 1847, pp. 8, 13.
  20. ^ Chisholm, Hugh (1911). The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, vol 13 (11th ed.). New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. p. 64. 
  22. ^ Holdenby Palace website
  23. ^ Deacon 2008, p. 213.



Further reading[edit]


External links[edit]

Political offices
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Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire
Title next held by
The Lord Burghley
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Henry Ashley
Vice-Admiral of Dorset
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Sir Carew Raleigh
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Sir Francis Knollys
Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard
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Henry Goodier
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Sir Thomas Bromley
Lord Chancellor
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In Commission
Academic offices
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Chancellor of the University of Oxford
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