Christopher Hatton, 1st Baron Hatton

Christopher Hatton, 1st Baron Hatton PC (c. July 1605 – 4 July 1670) was a distant relation of the Elizabethan politician, Sir Christopher Hatton and a prominent Royalist during the reign of King Charles I of England.

He was the son of Sir Christopher Hatton of Barking, Essex and Alice Fanshawe, daughter of Thomas Fanshawe and was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He trained for the law at Gray's Inn.

Hatton entered Parliament as MP for Peterborough in 1625, even though too young to legally sit, and Clitheroe in that of 1626. On reaching the age of 21 in 1626, he was created a Knight of the Bath, as had been his father before him. He was elected a member of the Long Parliament in 1640 for both Higham Ferrers and Castle Rising, choosing to sit for the former where he was High Steward; he was one of the few candidates supported by Queen Henrietta Maria to secure election.

During the Civil War, Hatton was a partisan of Charles I. In 1643 he was created Baron Hatton of Kirby; and, acting as comptroller of the royal household, he represented the king during the negotiations at Uxbridge in 1645. Later he lived for some years in France, and after the Restoration was made a privy counsellor and governor of Guernsey.

In 1663 he became a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. ^[1]

He died at Kirby, Northamptonshire on 4 July 1670, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. By his wife Elizabeth, who died when lightning struck a powder magazine at Cornet Castle, Guernsey, in 1672, he had two sons and three daughters.

References

• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)