Charles Hatton (abt. 1635 - aft. 1708)

Born about 1635 in Barking, Essex, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Scroggs) Hatton — married 22 May 1686 in St James' Duke's Place, London, England

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Biography

The Honorable Charles Hatton was the second son of Christopher Hatton, first Baron Hatton of Kirby, and his wife Elizabeth Montagu. He was born 11 November 1635. His elder brother was Christopher Hatton, first Viscount Hatton. ^[1]

His father dissipated his fortune before the outbreak of the Civil War, when he joined the forces of King Charles I and was raised to the peerage for his loyalty. Although Lord Hatton was a notable botanist and later became a founding member of the Royal Society, his younger son accused him of neglecting his education. Charles Hatton nevertheless became a noted virtuoso in his own right (although never a member of the Royal Society). ^[1]

Following the war, Lord Hatton was named Governor of Guernsey, where one of his main charges was the imprisoned Parliamentary Major-General John Lambert, also an enthusiastic botonist and horticulturalist. ^[2] On Guernsey, Charles Hatton met and fell in love with Lambert's eldest daughter Mary, and they were secretly married some time between 1665 and 1667. ^[3] At this, his father was enraged, writing to the king: 'Attempts have been made to accuse me of fault, because of the misfortune of my son's marriage with a prisoner's daughter there, whose father was attainted, and she had no portion. I did not know of the match till a year after and then I turned my son out of doors, and have never given him a penny since .. .'; ^[4] It may be that the lack of a bride's portion was the greatest fault he found in the affair.

Fortunately for the Charles Hattons, the old Lord's elder son Christopher Hatton inherited his estate in 1670 and thenceforth gave his brother and his family much-needed support. Both brothers had been officers in the Earl of Manchester's Regiment of Foot ^[5] during the 2nd Anglo-Dutch War in 1667. Charles was appointed Receiver for the Guernsey garrison after his brother was named Governor, and later Lieutenant Governor, with his own company of soldiers. ^{[6] [7]} However, when not on duty he lived primarily in London, where he acquired a small house in Pall Mall for his family, although only one child, a son Charles, lived past infancy and died before age five in 1672. His wife Mary died not long afterward. ^[1]

Charles remarried later, on 22 May 1686, ^[8] to Elizabeth Gilby, widowed daughter of the infamous Lord Chief Justice William Scroggs, who sentenced dozens of innocents to death during the Popish Plot of 1678. The marriage produced no children, but Elizabeth had gave Charles three stepsons from her former marriage. ^[1]

The Hattons being long-time supporters of the Stuart dynasty, Charles opposed the invasion of William of Orange as a grenadier officer in the Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot. ^[9] He was one of the few who refused to go over to the side of Willliam, writing, " ... as to my own Particular I shall endeavour to act according to those Principles of Loyalty in which I have been educated and which I am obliged both by my Religion and allegiance ... " After William took the throne as William III, Charles Hatton refused to swear the loyalty oath to him, thus losing his commission as a nonjuror. He appears to have flirted with Jacobitism, and so on 22 June 1690 was briefly committed to the Tower, where he could not afford the goaler's fees. ^[10] His wife petitioned to be allowed to join him there. ^[11]

Following that warning, Charles Hatton thereafter largely devoted himself to gardening, in which he was a correspondent of numerous notable figures in the field, such as John Evelyn. ^[12] He was also a good friend of Samuel Pepys and one of the pallbearers at his funeral on 4 June 1703. He wrote the next day to his brother: "Mr. Pepys, who was a very valuable person and my particular friend, to whom dying he left mourning, is dead, and was yesterday buryed: severall persons of quality and note being at his funerall.^{[13] [14]} Morrison's "Plantarum Historica Oxoniensis" (1680) was dedicated to Charles Hatton as well as Ray's "Historia Plantarum" (1686). ^[1] The biographer Roger North named him "Incomparable" and "truly noble". ^[15]

Charles Hatton's last letter was dated January 1708. Elizabeth Hatton survived him until 1724. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Turner, H D. "Charles Hatton: A Younger Son" Northamptonshire Past and Present, vol 3, #6 (1965-66) , pp. 255-261. Turner
2. ↑ Farr, David. John Lambert: Parliamentary Soldier and Cromwellian Major-General, 1619-1684 The Boydell Press: 2003. [Farr
3. ↑ Boyd's Marriage Index FindMyPast
4. ↑ "Charles II: Undated Petitons 1669." Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1668-9. Ed. Mary Anne Everett Green. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1894. 640-660. British History Online. Web. 16 July 2023. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/domestic/chas2/1668-9/pp640-660 BHO]
5. ↑ British Army Lists FindMyPast
6. ↑ Thompson, Edward M, ed. The Correspondence of the Family of Hatton, p. 242. The Camden Society, London Longmans, Green. p. 242
7. ↑ "Charles II: December 1680." Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1680-1. Ed. F H Blackburne Daniell. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921. 97-124. British History Online. Web. 17 July 2023. BHO
8. ↑ London Parish Registers, St James Dukes Place, 22 May 1686, p. 101. FindMyPast
9. ↑ British Army Lists FindMyPast
10. ↑ Thompson, vol 2, pp. 151-162. p. 151
11. ↑ "William and Mary: July 1690." Calendar of State Papers Domestic: William and Mary, 1690-1. Ed. William John Hardy. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1898. 41-85. British History Online. Web. 17 July 2023. July 4
12. ↑ The Gardens Trust blog
13. ↑ Thomson, vol 2, p. 250. p. 250
14. ↑ Erenow. "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self" p. 30
15. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 25/ Hatton, Christopher (1605?-1670) by Gordon Goodwin DNB

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