Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hatcher, Thomas (1589?-1677)

1410478Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 25 — Hatcher, Thomas (1589?-1677)1891Gordon Goodwin

HATCHER, THOMAS (1589?–1677), captain in the parliamentary army, born about 1589, was son of Sir John Hatcher, knt., of Careby, Lincolnshire, by his first wife Anne, daughter of James Crowes (Blore, Rutland, p. 134). Thomas Hatcher, the antiquary [q. v.], was his grandfather. He was elected M.P. for Lincoln on 2 Feb. 1623–4, for Grantham on 29 Feb. 1627–8, and for Stamford on 24 March 1639–40. He also represented Stamford in the Long parliament, and sat for Lincolnshire from 1654 to 1659 (Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. i.). At the outbreak of the civil war Hatcher sided with the parliament, and became captain of a horse regiment. On 28 April 1642 he was ordered to accompany the Earl of Stamford and other commanders into Lincolnshire, and thence to Kingston-upon-Hull (Dalton, Wrays of Glentworth, ii. 29). In June he was acting as one of the parliamentary committee for Lincolnshire (ib. i. 228), and in November he marched with others into the North Riding of Yorkshire to oppose the progress of the Earl of Newcastle (ib. ii. 39), taking part in the fight at Sherburn and probably other engagements (ib. ii. 44). He was included in the list of ‘traitors’ mentioned in Newcastle's proclamation of 17 Jan. 1643 (ib. i. 246). In the following August he was nominated a commissioner from the parliament to the estates and kingdom of Scotland (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 475). He was present at the battle of Marston Moor, and was with the leaguer before York in June and July 1644 (ib. Dom. 1644, pp. 287, 303, 311). Parliament dispensed with his residence with the Scots commissioners in the north in September (Commons' Journals, iii. 630). Hatcher was buried at Careby on 11 July 1677. By his wife Catherine, daughter of William Ayscoughe of South Kelsey, Lincolnshire, he had a son John and a daughter Elizabeth. Mrs. Hatcher was buried at Careby on 15 Dec. 1651.

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