Sir Christopher was the second son of William Hatton of Holdenby, Northamptonshire, and his second wife, Alice Saunders, daughter of Lawrence Saunders of Harrington, Northamptonshire. His wife, Alice Brokesby was the daughter of Robert Brokesby of Shoby, Leicestershire, and of Alice Shirley. On his father's side, the Hatton pedigree is said to be "traced beyond records". In the reign of Henry VII, Henry Hatton of Quisty Birches in Cheshire married Elizabeth, sole heiress of William Holdenby of Holdenby, Northamptonshire. Their son, John Hatton, settled at Holdenby and had three sons, of whom Christopher Hatton's father, William, was the eldest. He is said to have had two brothers, Thomas and William, and a sister Dorothy, who married first John Newport of Hunningham, Warwickshire, then William Underhill of Idlicote, Warwickshire, whose son, also William Underhill, sold New Place to William Shakespeare. In 1567, Hatton's brother Thomas married John Newport's sister, Ursula Newport. However Hatton's two brothers appear to have died relatively young and without issue. It was his sister Dorothy's son by John Newport who eventually became Hatton's heir.sfn |Nicolas |1847 |p=2sfn |MacCaffrey |2004sfn |Nicolas |1847 |p=3sfn |Nicolas |1847 |p=4sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=4–5sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=63sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=5–6, 13sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=38–39sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=36 and 39sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=7–9 and 13sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=63sfn |Nicolas |1847 |p=15sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=25–28sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=63sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=63sfn |Nicolas |1847 |pp=8, 13sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=63sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=63sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=64sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=64sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=64sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=64sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=64sfn |Chisholm |1911 |page=64
Wealth
Hatton became wealthy through his progressing career and the Queen's fondness for him, and in 1583 he embarked on building at Holdenby, Northamptonshire, what was to be the largest privately owned Elizabethan house in England. It had 123 huge glass windows at a time when glass was very expensive – window numbers became a way to show wealth. It had two great courts and was as large as Hampton Court palace. It was three storeys high and had two large state rooms, one for himself and another for the Queen, should she ever stay, which she never did. Lord Burghley, visiting the house in his old age, was impressed with the grand staircase from the hall to the state rooms and proclaimed the house so faultless he forgot the "infirmity of his legs" whilst he walked around. No expense was spared. Hatton even paid to move a village because it spoiled the view from one of his windows. However, the cost of the house drained his purse, so that Hatton was short of money for the rest of his life. No stranger to the financial strain of building, Burghley wrote to Hatton: "God send us both long to enjoy her, for whom we both meant to exceed our purses in these." To maintain his dwindling wealth, Hatton began investing in some voyages of Francis Drake, including Drake's acts of piracy in Spanish America. During Drake's subsequent circumnavigation of the globe, when he reached the straits of Magellan, he renamed his ship The Golden Hind in honour of Hatton's coat of arms, which contained a golden hind, and of all the Spanish goldon board. Hatton made a profit of £2300 from this expedition.
Death
Despite his successes Hatton died with large debts, a few years after his Holdenby mansion was completed in 1583. Hatton claimed to refuse to sleep there until Queen Elizabeth I would do so. The remains of the original Holdenby House are a room incorporated into a replacement building in the 1870s; part of the pillared doorway with two arches inscribed with the date 1583 in the gardens; and drawings and plans. He had begun to build his other country house, Kirby Hall, in 1570. It was based on French architectural designs and expanded in Classical style over the decades. Hatton's health declined in 1591. The Queen visited him on 11 November. Nine days later he died at Ely Place and was given a state funeral at St Paul's Cathedral on 16 December. A grand monument to him stood at the high altar of Old St Paul's, "towering above it – an outrage to the susceptibilities of the devout but an object of marvel to London sightseers – until the Great Fire of 1666 dethroned and destroyed it." Hatton is listed on a modern monument in the crypt as one of the important graves lost.
