Thomas Hatcher (antiquary)


Thomas Hatcher was an English antiquarian.

Life

He was born at Cambridge, son of John Hatcher, M.D., regius professor of physic. He was educated at Eton College, and was elected in 1555 to King's College, Cambridge. He proceeded B.A. in 1559–60, and commenced M.A. in 1563.
Hatcher was a Fellow of King's, from 1558 to 1566. In 1565, being dissatisfied with the government of Provost Philip Baker, he, with some other members of the college, wrote a letter of complaint against him to William Cecil. He studied law in Gray's Inn, where he was admitted in 1565, and then medicine.
A man of means, Hatcher did not follow a profession. In later life he resided on his father's estate at Careby, near Stamford, Lincolnshire. He was on good terms with John Caius, who in 1570 inscribed to him his work De Libris suis propriis; John Stow was another friend and correspondent.
Hatcher was buried at Careby on 14 November 1583.

Works

Hatcher wrote:
Hatcher also edited Walter Haddon's Lucubrationes et Poemata, 1567, dedicated to William Cecil, and Nicholas Carr's orations De scriptorum Britannicorum paucitate, 1576.

Family

Hatcher married Catharine, daughter and heiress of Thomas Rede, son of Richard Rede of Wisbech, and had: a son John, elected from Eton to King's College, Cambridge, in 1584, who succeeded to the estates of his grandfather, Dr. John Hatcher, and received the honour of knighthood; Henry, sometime of St John's College, Cambridge; William; Alice, wife of Nicholas Gunter, sometime mayor of Reading; and other daughters.