As I continue to delve into my Shropshire roots, today I would like to tell you about my 11x great-grandfather Richard Hatchett. According to several sources, including Gareth Williams’ “The Country Houses of Shropshire”, Richard was born in Acton Reynald in 1583. Acton Reynald is a small hamlet within the boundaries of the parish of Shawbury, a village about eight miles northeast of Shrewsbury, Shropshire’s county town.

Indeed, the surviving parish records for Shawbury include the baptism, on 26 October 1583, of a Richard Hatchet (sic), son of Robert Hatchet. The name of Richard’s mother is not mentioned on the baptism entry, but a marriage between a Robert Hatchett and Eline Waters on 22 September 1577 would suggest that Elyne was Richard’s mother. Perhaps more conclusively, the names of Richard’s godparents are both mentioned on his baptism certificate, and his godfather is recorded as being Robert Waters, the same surname as Elyne’s. Richard was not the couple’s only child, for Robert and Elyne also had at least one other daughter, Margery, who was baptised in May 1579.

The notes on Volume 8 of the “Visitation of England and Wales”, edited by Frederick Arthur Crisp in 1909, states that Richard’s wife was called Alice, and that they married on 4 February 1611 [N.S.]. The couple are noted in the same source as having had six children, namely Stephen, William, John, an unnamed daughter who married Isaac Jones of Chilton, Sarah and Alice. Except for William (who, it is to be understood, probably predeceased his father), this information is consistent with Richard’s will written in early 1655, which mentions all of his children. Again, the daughter married to Isaac Jones in not mentioned by name, but I have since proven that her name was Susan.

Although Richard’s early life was spent in the parish of Shawbury and, following his marriage to Alice, in Ellesmere, it seems that by the 1620s the Hatchetts had moved to Peplow, in the village of Hodnet, where they took up residence as tenants of one Sir Robert Vernon.

In the “Antiquities and Memories of the parish of Myddle”, written by Richard Gough, of Newton, Shropshire, in the year 1700, the author relates the following about Richard Hatchett (whose great-grandson and namesake was married to Gough’s daughter Elizabeth):

Richard Hatchett […] was a wealthy father in Peplow, under Sir Robert Vernon, of Hodnett; att what time Sir Robert Vernon, (who was owner of all Peplow and Ellerdine,) had mortgaged the whoale Towne of Ellerdine unto Sir Richard Newport, of High Ercall, for a great sum of money, which mortgage was expired, and the money called for. Now there was four tenants in Peplow which were very wealthy persons – viz., this Richard Hatchett […]. To these four, Sir Robert sent to borrow the sum of money to pay off the mortgage; butt they consulted togeather, and made excuses: and thereupon Sir Robert swoare, that now child of any of the four persons should live upon his land, after theire leases were expired: butt Richard Hatchett removed beefore his lease was expyred; for hee was so plagued and plundered by the soldiers in the warre time, that hee was forced to remove to Shrewsbury.

Be it by design or by sheer serendipitous coincidence, Richard Hatchett elected to move to Shrewsbury, where he bought several houses and was made a burgess of the town’s corporation in early 1625 [N.S.]. By the time he reached old age, his elder daughter Susan had married Isaac Jones, son and heir of William Jones, of Atcham (whose late mother Mary Gratewood was a kinswoman of the Vernon family mentioned above). His eldest son, Stephen, described as a person of good repute in this country, lived at Lee, near Ellesmere, a property which either he or his father had purchased from a Mr Charleton. As for his brother, Richard Gough goes on to to say:

John married with Margarett, a bastard daughter of Mr Ditcher’s, of Muckleston; for this Ditcher had noe legitimate child, but was very rich. This John Hatchett had a great fortune with his wife, beside that Estate that was given him by his father: butt hee lived above it all, and therefore it was noe marvell that hee dyed poore. His widow after his decease, was placed in one of the Almeshouses at Lytle Berwicke, and there shee dyed.

Lack of further references to his wife Alice make me suppose that she died before Richard. She appears to have been alive in February 1640 [N.S.], although no further references to her seem to have survived. On the other hand, despite fathering at least six children, only Richard’s eldest son Stephen Hatchett and daughter Susan Jones appear to have left issue. As for his remaining younger daughters Sarah and Alice, they were both living and unmarried in early 1655, but whether they ever married or had descendants is not known.

Richard Hatchett, a successful Shropshire yeoman and my 11x great-grandfather, died in his 72nd year in February 1655 and was buried on the 10th day of that month. Although only a handful of records specifically refer to him as an individual, it is remarkable that over four centuries on it is still possible to find some details about his interesting life.