mere Beauty,’ led him to pay many visits to the Fish Inn, Buttermere, of which the girl's father was landlord. After ascertaining that Mary's family had some means, he married her at Lorton Church on 2 Oct. 1802. Newspapers reported the marriage of the famed ‘Buttermere Beauty’ to a member of the aristocracy, and Lord Hopetoun's family made it known that Colonel Hope was then residing in Vienna. After his wedding Hatfield set out for Scotland, but in four or five days returned with Mary to her father's house. George Hardinge [q. v.], the Welsh judge, who knew Colonel Hope and had heard of the imposture, went to Keswick, and invited Hatfield to visit him. Hatfield went over to Keswick, and was introduced to Hardinge by a friendly creditor. Hatfield asserted that his name was Hope, but that he was not the member for Linlithgow. A warrant for his apprehension was, however, granted, and he was placed in the custody of the constable. He treated the matter as a mistake, and cleverly contrived to escape from his custodians. In November a reward of 50l. was offered for his apprehension, a description of him was widely circulated, and he was seized at a village sixteen miles from Swansea soon after. The trial took place at Carlisle on 15 Aug. 1803. To three indictments for forgery Hatfield pleaded not guilty. But the charges were fully proved. He was sentenced to be hanged, and met his death with the utmost coolness on Saturday, 13 Sept. Much of the interest excited in the case was due to Hatfield's connection with the beautiful Mary of Buttermere, whose sufferings at Hatfield's hands excited general sympathy. A public subscription was raised in both London and her own county to meet the pecuniary loss which she and her family had sustained. She afterwards married a respectable farmer and removed to a distant part of the county. Mary and her false lover were the subject at the time of many novels, verses, dramas, and tales. A portrait of Hatfield, published 5 Jan. 1803, is inserted in Kirby's ‘Museum,’ i. 309.
[Account of the Trial of Mr. John Hatfield, Liverpool, 1803; Trial of John Hatfield, London, 1803; Life of Mary Robinson, London, 1803; Life of John Hatfield, Carlisle, 1846; Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum, vol. i.; Tales and Legends of the English Lakes, by Lorenzo Tuvar; Knapp and Baldwin's Newgate Calendar, iii. 344–54; private information.]
HATFIELD, MARTHA (fl. 1652), ‘the wise virgin,’ the daughter of Anthony Hatfield, by his wife Faith Westley, was born at Leighton, Yorkshire, 27 Sept. 1640. The Hatfields were puritans. In April 1652 Martha was seized with an illness which the physicians were unable to define, but which seems to have been a form of catalepsy. For seventeen days she lay stiff and was unable to speak, and it was said that she could neither see nor hear. When she recovered her voice she uttered rambling recollections of pious discourses abounding in quotations of Scripture. Her friends regarded her ravings as a new revelation, and her words were taken down, generally by the two sons of Sir Edward Rhodes and by John Cromwell. From 8 Sept. 1652 till 7 Dec. Martha was again speechless, but after her recovery gave no further proof of exceptional powers. The circumstances of Martha Hatfield's illness impressed her friends, and her uncle, James Fisher, the founder of the first presbyterian congregation in Sheffield, published the story of her case and her reported sayings. The book was called ‘The Wise Virgin, or a Wonderfull Narration of the hand of God, wherein his severity and goodness hath appeared in afflicting a Childe of 11 years of age when stricken Dumb, Deaf, and Blind …,’ 1653. It gained great popularity among the credulous, and was several times reprinted. The fifth edition (1664) has a curious portrait of Martha Hatfield prefixed. Contemptuous reference is made to Hatfield's vision in ‘A New Song on the strange and wonderful groaning board,’ London, 1682 (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 310).
[The Wise Virgin; Hunter's Hallamshire, ed. Gatty, p. 288.]
HATFIELD, THOMAS of (d. 1381), bishop of Durham, is stated by Poulson (Hist. of Holderness, i. 442, Hull, 1840) to have been the second son of Walter of Hatfield in Holderness. He seems to have entered the king's service at an early age, and was keeper of the privy seal in 1343 (Godwin, De Præsulibus, ii. 330). Poulson adds (p. 443), but without giving his authority, that he was tutor to the Prince of Wales. Before this he had been presented to the prebend of Liddington in the church of Lincoln, 1342 (Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Anglic. ed. Hardy, ii. 178), and on 17 Dec. 1343 he was collated to that of Fridaythorpe in the church of York (ib. iii. 186). A year later he was given another Lincoln prebend, that of Buckden (ib. ii. 119). The Thomas de Hatfield who was prebendary of Oxgate in St. Paul's Cathedral (ib. ii. 420) belongs apparently to an earlier generation. On 14 April 1345 Richard of Bury, bishop of Durham, died, and Edward III desired to raise Hatfield to the see. According to the story handed down at St.
