Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton

For other people named Christopher Hatton, see Christopher Hatton (disambiguation).

Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton (1632–1706) was an English aristocrat and diplomat.

A 1641 painting of Christopher Hatton by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen

Career

He succeeded his father, Christopher Hatton, 1st Baron Hatton, as 2nd Baron Hatton and also as governor of Guernsey in 1670.

He and his family were living in the governor's official residence, Castle Cornet, in 1672 when its keep and some living quarters were destroyed by an explosion; his mother and wife were killed. Hatton and his three young daughters were rescued by black servant James Chappell.

He continue to employ his father's steward and composer George Jeffreys to care for his family's Kirby Hall estate. Many of Jeffreys's letters are preserved in the Hatton-Finch correspondence; they cover a period of nearly forty years.

Kirby Hall, Gretton Corby, Northamptonshire.(Seat of the Hattons)

In 1682, he was created Viscount Hatton, of Gretton, Northamptonshire.

Family

Christopher's younger brother was the botanist Charles Hatton.

He first married on 12 February 1667 to Lady Cecily Tufton, daughter of John Tufton, 2nd Earl of Thanet and Lady Margaret Sackville, daughter and heiress of 3rd Earl of Dorset and Lady Anne Clifford. They had the following issue:

• Anne Hatton (d. 1743), m. Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea

Viscountess Frances Hatton by Mary Beale

He married secondly Frances (d. 1684) daughter of Sir Henry Yelverton, 2nd Baronet and had one daughter that survived infancy.

His last wife was Elizabeth the daughter and heiress of Sir William Haslewood of Maidwell, Northamptonshire, she was a first cousin of Anne Finch. They had a large family including two sons:

• William Hatton (1690–1760), succeeded to his father's titles and estates
• Henry Hatton (c. 1700–1762), who enjoyed the same dignities for a short time after his brother's death.

Succession

Both his sons inherited the title Viscount Hatton in turn: William on his father's death in 1706, and Henry Charles for two years (1760–1762).

When Henry Charles died, the titles became extinct. The family line continues with the Finch-Hattons, Earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham, whose ancestor, Daniel Finch, 7th Earl of Winchilsea and 2nd Earl of Nottingham, married Anne Hatton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Hatton.

External links

• Kirby Hall

Bibliography

• Broadway, Jan (2004). "Hatton, Christopher, first Viscount Hatton (bap. 1632, d. 1706)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12607. Retrieved 10 December 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Burke, John (1841). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland. London: Scott, Webster, and Geary.
• Henning, Basil Duke (1983). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.
• Le Neve, Peter (1873). Le Neve's pedigrees of the knights made by King Charles II., King James II., King William III. and Queen Mary, King William alone, and Queen Anne. Harleian Society.